Several huts put up by some shelter-less tribals on the government land abutting a nursery at Prashantinagar under the Garimellapadu Gram Panchayat in Chunchupalli mandal were removed by the Revenue staff, as part of an ‘anti-encroachment drive’ on Tuesday morning.
The mandal revenue officials, accompanied by the local police, launched the drive in the early hours of the day. Earth movers were used to pull down the huts during the eviction drive that lasted for more than three hours, sources said.
The eviction drive triggered tension as some irate occupants of the huts entered into a heated argument with the revenue staff.
The angry hut dwellers alleged that their repeated pleas to the mandal level officials for sanction of house site pattas or two bedroom houses fell on deaf ears. Some of them pleaded with the officials to spare their huts to avoid their displacement in the COVID-19 crisis, but in vain.
As the situation turned tense, police shifted the hut dwellers, including several women along with their children, to the local police station.
Sources in the Revenue department said that the unauthorised huts on government land, earmarked for development of a nursery, were removed as part of an anti-encroachment drive on Tuesday morning.
The mandal revenue officials concerned were not available for comment.
