Hyderabad: In a significant development, Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy seems to have decided to revive the state government’s claim of ownership of the prime Guttala Begumpet land that is worth nearly ‘10,000 crore’.The previous BRS government had forgone state’s ownership claims over the land at the behest of a controversial realty firm which in turn took advances of hundreds of crores from prospective buyers who include top-notch businessmen.Then Rangareddy district collector Amoy Kumar had written to the stamps and registration department to remove the land from the prohibitory list to facilitate registration to the prospective buyers.However, following a recent Telangana High Court status quo order on the land, the HYDRAA on Sunday prevented a few encroachers from raising structures and erected boards with a warning that trespassers would be prosecuted. It also referred to the ongoing case before a High Court division bench led by acting Chief Justice Sujoy Paul which ordered the status quo “since there are attempts to change the status of the subject property.” HYDRAA put up a board reiterating the Telangana High Court’s status quo orders on a parcel of land at Guttala Begumpet, in Hyderabad on Sunday. (DC Photo)“There have been constant efforts to raise structures on the land in the recent past. Since the High Court ordered status quo, we removed the encroachments to ensure the implementation of the orders,” HYDRAA commissioner A.V. Ranganath told Deccan Chronicle.The division bench was dealing with a writ appeal filed by petitioners against the order of a single judge who had struck down Amoy Kumar’s orders. “With the HC single judge nullifying the previous government’s orders in favour of private parties, and leaving it to the designated civil court to decide the title, the state has now got a chance to revive its ownership claims,” a senior revenue official pointed out.Aggrieved by the single judge orders, the petitioners, who got favourable orders from Amoy Kumar, filed an appeal before the division bench. These petitioners, according to sources, entered into an agreement of sale with the reality firm’s associate companies which in turn collected money from buyers. Sources said some of the buyers recently received notices from the income-tax department, which has already conducted raids and has been investigating the financial transactions of the reality firm.
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