MAHABUBABAD: A farmer, along with his family, threatened to kill himself at the Mandal Revenue Officer’s (MRO) office in Bayyaram mandal of Mahabubabad district, by drinking petrol, on Thursday.
The farmer’s family members alleged that the MRO concerned had failed to take action against land grabbers. The farmer was identified as Islavath Vasanth Rao from Ramchandrapuram village of Bayyaram mandal. On Thursday, Vasanth Rao and his wife Devi visited the MRO office and began raising slogans against the MRO. Within minutes, the family, threatening suicide, began to pour petrol over themselves and also drank petrol. The Bayyaram police then rushed to the MRO office and detained the family, who were counselled.
Speaking to mediapersons, Vasanth Rao said, “We gave a complaint, along with documents, to the MRO, stating that our agricultural land had been encroached by land grabbers in the village. We repeatedly visited the concerned Revenue officials to update our names in the land records via the Dharani portal. The land grabber illegally encroached six acres of land under Survey number 60/30, which my family had been cultivating for many years.”
Rao added that owing to financial issues, his family had been doing physical labour in Adilabad. “Due to the pandemic, we returned to our native village. We then got information that the entire six acres of agricultural land had been encroached. We immediately submitted documents to the MRO but the concerned Revenue officials did not respond to our appeals,” alleged Vasanth Rao.
When contacted, Bayyaram MRO N Naga Bhavani said as per the records, 40 years ago, Vasanth Rao’s father had sold the land in question and migrated to Adilabad district -- facts the Revenue oficials claim to have confirmed with the villagers. Vasanth Rao’s father died a few years ago.