400-acre Hyd varsity plot not forest land: Telangana govt to SC

The Supreme Court bench had asked the state government not to take up any activity in the disputed land

- Srinivasa Rao Apparasu

HYDERABAD: The Telangana government has told the Supreme Court that the 400 acres of land at Kancha Gachibowli near the University of Hyderabad has never been classified as forest land and that its status in revenue records is state government land, people familiar with the development said on Tuesday.

On behalf of the state government, chief secretary Shanti Kumari submitted an affidavit in the Supreme Court on Monday, answering all the queries raised by the bench comprising Justice BR Gavai and Augustine George Masih on April 3, which took up suo motu cognizance of deforestation in the Kancha Gachibowli land. The land has been at the centre of a controversy after the state government decided to auction it for development, triggering protests spearheaded by the students union of the neighbouring University of Hyderabad.

The Supreme Court bench on April 3, while posting the matter to this Wednesday, had directed that the state government should not take up any activity in the disputed land, except for the protection of existing trees, until further orders.