GHMC officials step in to save park from encroachers

HYDERABAD: Some encroachers are eyeing a Rs 80 crore worth property, which is a GHMC park in Road No. 36, Jubilee Hills. Spread over 2,000 square yards, the space has compound walls and two temporary entrances, which have been laid from an adjacent structure that is owned by retired IAS officer Venu Gopal Reddy. Vegetables are being grown by using a drip irrigation system, while a sign board with the corporation's logo outside the lung space has been uprooted.

Ironically, the park is located behind Jubilee Hills police station and is adjacent to the property bearing plot number 457, which is owned by Venu Gopal Reddy. It is from his property that water to the drip irrigation system is being supplied. Though no one is presently living in the structure owned by the retired IAS officer, there is a watchman and a caretaker.

The encroachers have built compound walls that are blocking the only entrance to the lung space. The two temporary wooden staircases placed horizontally facilitating entrance from Gopal Reddy’s property are the only provisions to enter the GHMC park.

By Monday evening, the walls raised by the encroacher were demolished using a heavy vehicle and the entire vegetation grown on it will also be razed, said a GHMC official.

“This is an encroachment attempt,” said a GHMC official stationed in the head office. However, the officials at the demolition site said that they are yet to identify the encroacher.

“We are probing the incident to understand whether the encroachment has been done by the plot owner or whether he has leased out to a third party,” said another official from the corporation.