Graft bleeds Gajwel in Medak district

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s home constituency, Gajwel in Medak district, is hit by large-scale corruption. While Mr Rao had set up the Gajwel Area Development Authority soon after becoming CM in June 2014 with a view to developing it as a “model constituency”, officials and staff in government offices there are approving illegal layouts, constructions by taking bribes, disrupting the development plans of Gajwel.

GADA has received complaints regarding officials fixing a certain bribe amount for each work and even to deliver common citizen services. Most of the complaints are against the staff of Gajwel-Praga-purnagar panchayat.

Due to large scale complaints, GADA special officer M. Hanumantha Rao had ordered a complaint box to be set up at the panchayat office six months ago. The box continues to receive around 50 corruption-related complaints per month but there has not been much improvement in the situation.

Property values in and around Gajwel have skyrocketed after the CM came out with a series of development programmes after GADA was constituted.

Realtors from Hyderabad are queuing up at this area and starting ventures without approvals. The officials, who are supposed to check this, are doing nothing due to bribes offered by realtors.

As many as 40 ventures have come up around Gajwel and just three have the required approvals. While officials do conduct desultory raids on these ventures, declaring them as illegal, no action is taken later and the developers are allowed to go ahead with these ventures allegedly due to bribes.

Officials have even allowed construction of five-storied buildings in Gajwel though the rules permit only ground-plus-two floors.

While the CM has directed officials to widen the roads even by acquiring private properties and demolishing them if needed, the officials have allowed buildings that were built by encroaching on the roads.

A senior official said, “The CM wants to send a strong message that corruption will not be tolerated at any level, by initiating stringent action against some of the officials involved in irregularities. He is very serious about these complaints which are denting the image of his home constituency.”

GADA officials took up these issues with the CM and have decided to convene a meeting soon to set things right. The meeting is likely to be held in the Medak collectorate when Mr Rao visits this week to review development programmes.