PANEL TO PROBE CHARGES AGAINST MALLA REDDY

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) on Saturday set up a three-member team to inspect the park at Annojiguda where a temple is being built in violation of Supreme Court rulings and High Court orders.

The team consisting Ravi Kumar, revenue divisional officer, A. Suresh, municipal commissioner and Vijay Laxmi, tahsildar of Ghatkesar, visited the site and measured the area of the park used for the temple. The committee will submit a report to the government, sources said.

A report ‘Minister defies HC order to encroach public park’ published in these columns on Saturday highlighted the support extended by labour minister Ch Malla Reddy to a section of colony residents to build a temple in the public park.

Reacting to the report, the minister said as the MLA of the area, he only tried to help people and settle the dispute between the two communities. “I always try to help the underprivileged in the school,” he said and referred to his efforts to get the property tax of the school reduced.

Malla Reddy said he spoke to Anita Sen and Bishop Mathew of the school to request them to agree to a compromise and that he spoke to them in the presence of the district collector. “It has been 18 months since I visited the area,” he said dismissing their allegations of intimidating the school staff.

However, Anita Sen, wife of former Director-General of Police Swaranjit Sen, told this newspaper that contrary to the minister’s claims, the GHMC had actually enhanced the property tax for Jesus Way High School from Rs 69,000 over the past several years to Rs 6 lakh.

Bishop Mathew said that the construction was still going on and the school premises got damaged due to the activity in the adjoining park. “The GHMC officials who do not allow us to repair boundary walls that are beginning to crack up do not stop the Minister’s followers from constructing temple,” he added.