Hyderabad: It is not just the waqf board that lost huge tracts of land due to alleged encroachments; even the endowment department appears to be following in its tracks, due to lack of demarcation and protection.About 10 acres of a 30-acre endowment land parcel, worth about Rs 100 crore, has been reportedly encroached upon in Chengicherla village in Medipally mandal as the endowment department has not been able to demarcate its land and fence it.The problem is further complicated by a mismatch of land records and village map extents of survey numbers and also different village maps. Meanwhile, structures have sprouted on the disputed land in the last couple of years.Admitting there were allegations of encroachments on endowment land in Chengicherla, endowment commissioner M Hanumantha Rao told TOI that the endowment and revenue departments could not complete the final survey demarcating the endowment land (TLP Charities) due to a court stay on the comprehensive survey.Sources said the endowment department (TLP Charities) owns about 30 acres in survey numbers 33/8, 33/9 and 33/10 in Chengicherla in Medchal-Malkajgiri district. Several complaints were sent to the Medchal-Malkajgiri district collector and the endowment commissioner by individuals that neighbouring landowners had encroached upon the endowment land by giving other survey numbers and even got permissions for layout permission from Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) and a villa project from the then Boduppal Municipal Corporation a couple of years ago.A preliminary survey of the land was conducted by the assistant director of land survey and records to demarcate the endowment land in three survey numbers in Sept 2024. The survey officer reported that there were no sub-divisions in survey number 33 as per the authentic village map and also found another copy of the village map, which has sub-divisions in survey no. 33 i.e 33/1 to 33/12 but has no authentication.On Sept 13, 2024, survey officials from endowment, municipal administration departments, and the Medipally revenue inspector participated in the survey and a sketch was prepared.“We found there is a difference in the land extent as per the 1974-75 pahanis (revenue records) and the scanned village map,” the report said. For instance, while there were 15 acres as per the pahani, the scanned village maps had shown the extent as 22 acres in survey no. 33/8. In survey number 33/9, it was 16 acres in 33/9 in pahanis and 18 acres in the village maps. In the other survey number 33/10, while 13 acres was recorded in pahanis and 15.15 acres in village maps, and houses have come up in all the survey numbers.Medchal collector Manu Chowdhary wrote a letter in July 2025 to the land survey department for a comprehensive survey of the land to protect endowment land, but the department could not go ahead with the court cases. Interestingly, the endowment department has not made any efforts to get the stay vacated and complete the survey.
