Miyapur takeover begins after Supreme Court ruling, 400 of 550 acres already fenced

Officials in Rangareddy district have begun taking possession of roughly 550 acres of government land at Miyapur, a day after the Supreme Court held that the property belongs to the state and rejected claims by private parties.

District Collector C. Narayan Reddy inspected the land under survey numbers 100 and 101 in Serilingampalli revenue mandal on Friday, October 30, accompanied by revenue and HMDA officials. About 400 acres are already fenced, he said, and the remaining area will be secured once a fresh survey is completed.

The collector said residential colonies that have come up on part of the land will not be touched without consulting the state government, and that people living in the existing structures have nothing to fear. The parcels were allotted to HMDA in 2003, and the vacant portion remains under the authority's control.

Describing the dispute as almost three decades old and dating to a 1995 land grabbing case, Reddy said the litigation had run 23 years, including civil appeal 10699 of 2013.

He credited Justices Satish Chandra Sharma and M.N. Sundereshan for the verdict. "As per the court orders we will implement," he said, adding that "all the private claims on the land are bogus and have no right on these lands."

The land's value is disputed. The collector put it at around Rs 50,000 crore, while former minister T. Harish Rao said the Chief Minister had himself valued the 550 acres at more than Rs 60,000 crore.

Harish Rao, the BRS deputy floor leader in the Assembly, rejected Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy's contention that the previous BRS government colluded with private entities, and also disputed the claim that the Congress government's efforts secured the verdict.

He said court records showed the BRS administration fought an eight-year legal battle from 2015 to 2023, appointing senior advocate C.S. Vaidyanathan in April 2015, and that the judgment drew on the Supreme Court's June 2023 ruling in the Trinity Infraventures case.

He criticised the proposal to sell the land within 24 hours of the verdict and questioned the hurry, alleging that the government was preparing to dispose of it to benamis of the Chief Minister. The allegation has not been independently verified.

Officials traced the land's status to the Nizam era, when it was jagir property; it was declared poramboku land and became government land after jagir rights were abolished in 1949, the collector said, adding that title will now be recorded in settlement registers.

(With inputs from media reports)