Hyderabad: The 1,200 square yards area earmarked for green space in Sanjeevnagar Colony at Mahindra Hills in East Marredpally is under the eyes of land grabbers, complain residents.
After a spate of complaints lodged at the Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB), the Chief Executive Officer of SCB S.V.R Chandrashekar ordered to fence the land around the park area. However, the contractor, who was assigned to do this, has been delaying the job due to documentation reasons which is a concern to the residents, as the delay would lead to further encroachments before the work gets done.
The 1,200 sq. yard space, that has a minimum market value of Rs 6 crores, has been encroached by numerous people since many years as it has been lying vacant.
The latest encroachment was noticed on May 11, 2018, when construction materials such as concrete, bricks, sand was dumped in the park area.
Following this, the residents barged in and stopped illegal constructions and informed the SCB authorities. Even now, the concrete material continues to lie on the spot.
Resident of Sanjeevnagar Colony and complainant B. Naresh explained that the encroachers, who claimed to be henchmen of local politicians, demolished the existing compound wall and tried to encroach half of the park land.
“As a resident noticed it, this was stopped. We have also given representation to the Cantonment Board. They came and stopped the encroachment but in vain, as the encroachers have again cropped up with a new set of working material. Cantonment should immediately start working on the construction of the park as our children have no other space other than this. This is the only way to stop encroaching too,” he said.
The park area is owned by the SCB. In the year 2000, 40 per cent of the land in the colony area was dedicated for the development of the park and road related infrastructure.
Cantonment is supposed to develop basic amenities in this area for the betterment of citizens. Since 18 years, there has been no sign of development in the place.
Phani Kumar, Assistant Engineer, SCB said, “We have allocated a contractor to construct a compound wall surrounding the park area immediately, demarcating the park area. We have already been there and seized the construction materials.”
When the contractor M. Madhava Rao was contacted, he said, “We will start our work within two to three days. We were informed about this. We also went and visited the land.”
