High drama as woman climbs cellphone tower

Alleges retired police officer occupied her land

The woman being brought down from the cell tower near Visakhapatnam collector’s office on Monday.

A woman created a flutter at the District Collector’s office here on Monday by climbing a cellphone tower and threatening to commit suicide, accusing the authorities of turning a deaf ear to her repeated pleas related to ‘illegal occupation of a vacant land by her neighbour’.

U. Lakshmi, a resident of Ambedkar Colony in Malkapuram, came to the collectorate when the weekly ‘Griveance Day’ programme was on. Having climbed the tower, she thereatened that she would jump off it if her ‘long-pending grievance’ was not addressed.

Upon information, the a team of police rushed to the spot and brought her down after concivincing that justice would be delivered to her.

After being brought down from the tower, Ms. Lakshmi said that she had been living with her two daughters Pushpa (21) and Revathi (18) in Ambedkar Colony for the past 19 years. After her husband’s death, she had received a double-portion house and a vacant land from her parents.

‘Pleas fell on deaf ears’

“A retired police officer B. Nagabhushanam, who is living near my house, has occupied the vacant land. Earlier, I had urged the local heads and police to solve the issue, but they supported him. They had even denied to verify the original documents of the land,” Ms. Lakshmi alleged.

She further alleged that that she had been doing the rounds of the collector’s office for quite some time to submit her grievance.

“All my pleas fell on deaf ears. Fed up with the passive response from the officials, I decided to commit suicide,” she said.