SANGAREDDY: An 82-year-old retired Mandal Education Officer (MEO), Ravi Shankar, staged a protest in front of the Jinnaram Tahsildar Office on Friday, alleging that revenue officials had illegally transferred his 14 guntas of land in Survey No 172 of Shivanagar village to another person while he was away in the United States.
The octogenarian said he had purchased the land in 2007 and registered it in his name. However, he alleged that revenue officials later transferred the land back to the original seller’s name. Despite making several visits to the tahsildar office seeking rectification of the records, tahsildar Devi Das remained indifferent to his appeals, he claimed.
With no response forthcoming from the officials, Ravi Shankar staged a sit-in protest in front of his office. He said he had moved to the US in 2010 to live with his children and, since returning to India six months ago, had been running from pillar to post to reclaim his land.
Ravi Shankar’s brother-in-law and former Zilla Parishad vice-chairman Prabhakar spoke to the tahsildar over the phone and asserted that they would not leave the office until the issue was resolved.
Prabhakar alleged that the tahsildar was attempting to shirk responsibility by claiming that the file had been forwarded to the collector and advising them to approach higher authorities for resolution.
He further said Ravi Shankar had travelled from the US specifically to reclaim his property and warned that if he failed to return within a month, his green card could be cancelled. “When I spoke to the additional collector regarding the issue, he said he had around 150 files pending and would take them up in sequence,” Prabhakar said.
He added that Ravi Shankar had also submitted a complaint during a Praja Palana meeting in the hope of securing a quick resolution, but the issue remains unresolved.
