Vizag land 'scam' raises heat

THE claim on recovering nearly 477 acres of government land encroached by influential people valued at nearly Rs 5,000 crore in Visakhapatnam city and its outskirts over past one year has kicked up a row with the Telugu Desam Party terming it as a political vendetta to muzzle the voice of the opposition leaders.

As most of the accused in the land grabbing cases, probed by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by retired IAS officer Vijay Kumar after YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, assumed office, belonged to the main Opposition TDP, the issue is snowballing into a big controversy. "This is nothing but a political vendetta. We will certainly approach the court to prove the claim of the YSRCP wrong," TDP State president K Atchan Naidu told Bizz Buzz.

Land prices in and around Visakhapatnam have gone up manifold with the State Government developing the city as the executive capital as part of decentralised development.

On Sunday itself, the government claimed that 49 acres in Tunglam, Jaggarajupeta and Kurmannapalem with a market value of Rs 791 crore was reclaimed by the GVMC and revenue officials from the possession of Palla Srinivasa Rao, former MLA and TDP parliamentary party president, his brother P Shankar Rao and family members.

Describing the charge as 'height of falsehood and blatant misuse of power' to tarnish the image of his brother Srinivasa Rao, Sankar Rao said they had bought the land in question from 56 farmers in 1992. He said they would approach the court to 'free the land from acquisition by the government.' The officials seized the land after conducting a raid in the small hours of Sunday and demolished the boundary wall and godown.

During the past one year encroachment charges have been made against the management of deemed to be university and others connected with TDP. "Our party is firm on reclaiming lands which have been grabbed by TDP leaders before we came to power," YSRCP official spokesperson and Gajuwaka MLA Gudivada Amarnath said on Monday. Though SIT was constituted when N Chandrababu Naidu was the Chief Minister, its report was not made public. During the TDP regime, then Minister Ch Ayyanna Patrudu made serious allegations on grabbing of government lands by politicians in connivance with the officials.

The SIT set up by the YSRCP in its interim report allegedly found clinching evidence against the involvement of 25 to 30 bureaucrats and officials in furnishing false information on government lands/classification/hiding information 22A of Regulation Act to facilitate encroachment of government lands. Meanwhile, a senior official said the SIT report, which was based on nearly 1,400 complaints including 300 on 22A will be released shortly. The final phase of investigation into the scam was delayed due to the pandemic.