Jubilee Hills park illegally taken over for farming vegetables; GHMC mayor demands removal of encroachment

Hyderabad: The GHMC mayor on Monday inspected 2,000 sq yards of park behind Jubilee Hills police station on Road No 36 that has been encroached upon and turned into a personal vegetable farm!

This was found at a time when agencies such as HYDRAA were aiming to crack a whip on the encroachers across the city. However, a section of them is still encroaching on government lands posing a serious challenge to the administration.

The land in question is the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) park site at Jubilee Hills Road No 36 worth around Rs 60 crore was encroached on by a private person who constructed a wall and started cultivating vegetables on it and turned the entire premises into his farm without obtaining any permissions.

Upon knowing about the encroachment, GHMC mayor Gadwal Vijayalakshmi, accompanied by the officials, inspected the site on Monday. She found that the encroacher had removed the GHMC board outside the park area while concealing another board. The encroacher had also installed a pipeline within the park grounds and was cultivating vegetables in the open space.

The Mayor further discovered that the individual living adjacent to the park had built a big boundary wall and used a ladder to plant vegetables on the encroached territory.

After inspecting the encroached land, the mayor said, “At a time, when chief minister A Revanth Reddy is very keen to protect the government lands in the city how can a private person without obtaining any permission turn the park premises into a vegetable garden for his convenience like a farmhouse? Is it the failure of the GHMC or Urban Bio Diversity (UBD) wing. The GHMC won't hesitate to initiate action against the encroachers."

The Mayor instructed the officials to initiate stern action against the encroachers and take possession of the said premises by the end of the day.

"Encroaching on public property is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Strict measures will be taken to prevent such activities and protecting public spaces and public property is our priority," Vijayalakshmi said.

Later, the enforcement teams from the GHMC demolished the encroachments in GHMC park at Road No. 36, Jubilee Hills under the supervision of Mayor Gadwal Vijayalakshmi.

After the demolition, the Mayor directed town planning authorities to undertake a survey, demolish the compound wall, clear the vegetable crop, and reinstall GHMC boards to establish the civic body's ownership of the area.