A tract of land, about a km from the main road at Cheriyal village in Kandi mandal that connects to Mumbai National Highway-65, has been dug up by contractors who have been taking gravel from here.
Over 30-feet deep, the land is being dug up for the past few months, say locals, adding that gravel is being taken from here to lay a road between Kandi and Shankarpally in Ranga Reddy district.
Landless villagers
This land was reportedly assigned to landless villagers by the State government which has remained unused for reasons best known to them. As it lay unused, some contractors approached the villagers offering them money to extract gravel from the land.
“Except for assignees, no land owner would allow gravel extraction from his/her land as it could not be used for any other purpose later. The land was given to poor villagers for cultivation and they have no right to allow a third party to use it for any purpose,” said an officer on condition of anonymity.
“In this case, both the assignees and contractors are considered culprits. I wonder why the Revenue Department did not take any action against either of them,” he said, adding that the digging could have taken place on the land with survey no. 741 which was assigned to the villagers.
The contractors are usually suggested to take silt from water bodies to use in laying roads, but it would not be strong enough to lay the roads, which is why the contractors prefer gravel.
“Even when given permission, the contractors can only dig up to five feet. But they have gone beyond the permissible limit. If they get filled during rainy season, the situation may turn grave,” said another officer.
