Vizag SIT identifies 580 grabbed acres

Visakhapatnam: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) has identified over 300 acres of government land in parts of Vizag district which was encroached upon and over 280 acres of land which have been grabbed by tampering documents under the Provision of Transfer Act.

Though there was no clarity on the extension of the SIT, SIT officials are confident that they would restore over 1,200 acres of government land by the end of their inquiry.

The SIT, which has been probing tampering of government land documents in Vizag region, has been waiting for the government’s nod for the extension of the period to complete the comprehensive inquiry into the land scams in Vizag.

The time, given by the government, ended on August 28. Head of the SIT, DIG (Greyhounds) Vineet Brijlal said that SIT had taken up a total of 330 complaints pertaining to tampering of land records and other complaints and an inquiry into around 160 complaints has already been completed.  

Sources in SIT said that if no one influences their inquiry, they will restore at least 1,200 acres of government land, which includes over 700 acres of land that has been encroached upon by big sharks under the A.P. Assigned Lands (POT) Act 1977 and another 400 acres against which FIRs have been filed.

However, some leaders have been expecting that the government would not give an extension of SIT for two more months, saying that some TD leaders, who have grabbed the lands, may land in a soup.  Of the 69 cases of no objection certificates (NOCs) issued to the beneficiaries who were allotted lands under freedom fighters and political victims’ quota, SIT has found irregularities in around 23 NOCs and inquiries have started into the controversial NOCs. 

Expressing doubts over the extension of the SIT period, YSRC leaders say that SIT has slowed down its inquiry following political pressure. “We are not confident that SIT may get an extension and will conduct a complete inquiry into the alleged land scam of the Andhra Pradesh Med Tech Zone.” 

Minister Ch. Ayyanna Patrudu said that AMTZ is spread over 270 acres of land at Nadupuru area in Vizag city. Though the land belongs to the government, a few land grabbers have got compensation by claiming that the lands belonged to them by using forged documents.