TS BJP senior leader and ex-director of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) S. Malla Reddy has appealed to Union Minister for Heavy Industries Mahendra Nath Pandey to take steps to prevent illegal encroachment of the HMT Hyderabad unit land by certain private persons on Tuesday.
In a communication to the Minister, a copy of which was released to the media, the former vice president of the party explained that the factory, set up in 880 acres at Quthbullapur in Medchal-Malkajgiri district, was opened in 1967 and had about 5,000 employees when machine tools, bulbs and tractors were being manufactured.
At present only the machine tools division is working with about 300 workers and rest of the units have become “sick”. The huge township is lying waste with many buildings in a dilapidated condition but the land value is about ₹30 crore an acre so it has come under the eye of the land grabbers, he pointed out.
Hence, all measures must be taken for protection of land under any circumstances, he said accusing that the while the management is “unable to prevent illegal encroachments, the State government has been ignoring request for protection”.
The BJP leader said more than 20 acres has already been occupied and the State government has already taken land for building municipal office, police station, electrical sub-station and others without following due procedures, he said. The precious land could be better utilised for IT parks, hospitals, educational institutions, playgrounds, parks and others, Mr. Reddy added, in his letter.
