Tension prevailed at the office of a Mandal Revenue Officer (MRO) in Andhra Pradesh's Chittoor district, after a family of five allegedly threatened to kill themselves at Ramakuppam.
Babu Naik, a farmer from Tagarala Thanda, visited the MRO office on Wednesday and began raising slogans against the official. Within minutes, his family began to tie ropes to the top of a grill at the premises, threatening to hang themselves.
The police were called in, who manage to stop Naik and his family and detained them. The MRO is expected to file a complaint and has prepared a report on the incident, to submit to the Sub-Collector.
According to media reports, Babu Naik and his family claimed that he had been cultivating a piece of land, spread over 7 acres, for 40 years, but recently, officials of the revenue department had issued the passbook for the land to someone else.
Babu Naik alleged discrepancies in his pattadar passbook and said that despite repeated complaints, no action was taken, forcing him to take the extreme step.
Revenue officials in Telangana and Andhra have been on edge, ever since Vijaya Reddy, the MRO of Abdullahpurmet, was set ablaze and killed in her office chambers earlier this week.
Vijaya was killed by a man called K Suresh, allegedly over an ongoing land dispute.
The murder has seen revenue employees spill out on to the streets demanding protection.
In Kurnool district's Pattikonda in Andhra Pradesh, the local MRO, identified as Uma Maheswari, tied a rope inside her office as a barricade between her chair and the visitors.
Andhra: Uma Maheswari,Tehsildar of Kurnool's Pattikonda, tied up a rope inside her office as a barricade b/w her chair & the visitors after some people, allegedly drunk, visited her. Says "I panicked after Vijaya's murder (Abdullapurmet Tehsildar, set ablaze in her office)"(6.11) pic.twitter.com/spY9aPoxUO
— ANI (@ANI) November 6, 2019
Stating that she took the 'precaution' after some people visited her in an inebriated state, she said, "I panicked after Vijaya's murder."
Meanwhile on Wednesday, in Srikakulam district's Dookulapadu village, a farmer allegedly doused himself in petrol and threw it on village officials as well, during a gram sabha, alleging that he was denied Rythu Bharosa (A crop assistance scheme), despite meeting all the criteria to qualify for the assistance.
The police later took him into their custody and counselled him.
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