On November 4, a horrific incident took place in Tahsildar Ch Vijaya Reddy’s Abdullapurmet office. According to The Hindu, accused K. Suresh visited her cabin regarding a land issue and burnt her alive.
Following this gruesome incident, the safety of government revenue employees has been called into question. Now, certain measures have been announced for the 1000 tahsildars in Hyderabad, 400 of whom are women.
The Times of India quoted V. Lachi Reddy, the president of the deputy collector’s association saying,
“While the attack on Vijaya was unexpected, at least women tahsildars can now be on guard and take precautions. We have advised them to be more vigilant and carry pepper sprays.”
S. Ramulu from Telangana Tahsildars’ Association further added,
“People will now be screened and sent to officials only with petitions in their hands.”
Some collectorates are also mandating security checks using metal detectors while others are planning to install CCTV cameras. Velair tahsildar M.Rajani who received threats from a sarpanch earlier thinks that revenue offices must have police officers patrolling between 12 pm and 3 pm when most people come in with their grievances.
We hope that the security is stepped up soon so that such incidents don’t get repeated in the future.