india

Updated: Nov 19, 2019 17:49 IST

A fortnight after a farmer set ablaze a woman tehsildar (block revenue officer) at Abdullapurmet on the outskirts of Hyderabad, another farmer made a similar attempt at a different tehsildar office over a land dispute in Telangana’s Karimnagar district on Tuesday, police said.

According to the police, Jeella Kanakaiah (45) of Lambadipalli village entered the office of Chigurumamidi tehsildar at around 10.30 am, demanding that he be allowed to meet the officials to settle the dispute over a piece of land.

The tehsildar was not in the office at that time. An agitated Kanakaiah took out a bottle of petrol which he had brought along with him and sprinkled it on three persons – an office superintendent, a village revenue assistant and an attendant, besides dousing office furniture and computers.

“He took out a match box from his pocket in an attempt to set them afire, but the alert office staff pushed him out of the room and others immediately overpowered him,” Chigurumamidi sub-inspector of police Challa Madhukar Reddy who rushed to the tehsildar office with a team of policemen and took Kanakaiah into custody, told Hindustan Times.

According to the police officer, Kanakaiah, who lost his wife a couple of years ago, claimed that he had been cultivating four acres of land but the revenue authorities were not giving him patta (land deed issued by government) stating that there was a dispute over that piece of land.

“Frustrated over the alleged indifferent attitude of the officials in giving the patta for his land, Kanakaiah resorted to the violent act,” Reddy said.

The Chigurumamidi police booked a case of attempt to murder against Kanakaiah and are questioning him.

Security has been tightened at all tehsildar offices following the killing of Ch Vijaya Reddy, a woman tehsildar of Abdullapurmet block in Ranga Reddy district on the outskirts of Hyderabad by a farmer named Kura Suresh on November 4 who set her ablaze. While Reddy’s driver K Gurunatham who tried to save her also died a day later, Suresh who suffered burn injuries, succumbed three days later.

On Monday, another farmer Mallikarjun of Bommakal block of Karimnagar, who attended “Prajavani” programme conducted by the officials at district collector’s office, verbally abused revenue officials and threatened to set them ablaze for not solving his land issue despite for the last 15 years.

The police took him into custody, but later let him off on the request from the local political leaders.

Revenue authorities across Telangana have been taking all precautions to avoid a repeat of the Abdullapurmet incident. They have installed closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras at the chambers of tehsildars and the movements of visitors are being monitored. While tehsildars at some offices are collecting petitions through windows, others are allowing visitors to meet them only during specific hours, after they are thoroughly frisked.