VISAKHAPATNAM:The increasing number of land grab incidents have left the Police Department feeling that an action plan to curb such incidents is the need of the hour. The Madhurawada zone alone reported around 70 land grabs till date and a similar situation prevails on the outskirts of Visakhapatnam district.
After the bifurcation of the state, there has been a steep increase in land grab cases in the city. PM Palem, Madhurawada, Padmanabham, Bheemili, Anandapuram, Kancharapalem (Airport zone), Pendurthy, Simhachalam and a few other areas have reported land grab incidents. The Madhurawada zone which includes PM Palem, Bheemili, Padmanabham and Anandapuram received around 70 land grab cases. One of the police personnel said that there had been a rise in the cases of fake documents and trespassing.
“Many victims have been approaching the police complaining that their lands had been encroached on and there are even cases where there are multiple owners for the same patch of land. We will refer such cases to the MRO concerned to verify the documents and action will follow after that,” he added.
Very recently, the PM Palem police have arrested a person from Nellore on the charges of land grabbing. Originally a doctor from Nellore, the accused turned a realtor in Visakhapatnam four years ago. He produced fake documents for a site belonging to another and tried to occupy the land before the police busted him.
Reacting to the whole issue, police commissioner Amit Garg said that producing fake documents (double registration) is the current modus operandi in land grab cases. He also mentioned that there was a possibility of these crimes rising as the survey numbers and physical boundaries of lands are not clear.
“We are hammering out a fool-proof action plan against the land grab cases and for it we are preparing a list of land sharks and will also come out with a list of pending cases,” said the CP.