Visakhapatnam: Land scams have dented the image of the ruling Telugu Desam (TD) in Vizag city and rural parts also. The state government’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) has received more complaints against TD MLAs and a minister from both ruling and opposition parties citing that the TD leaders have grabbed both government and private lands by tampering with lands records. However, the opposition parties leaders have lost faith on the SIT inquiry.
Minister for roads and buildings Ch. Ayyanna Patrudu submitted a key evidence to SIT alleging that land grabbers, including some TD leaders mortgaged government lands and raised Rs 190 crore from the banks. The minister hinted that over 1,700 acres, including private and government lands have been encroached in Vizag city and surroundings.
The SIT, which has been conducting an inquiry into tampering with land records (land scams) in Vizag city and other parts of the district, has received over 2,560 complaints pertaining to tampering with land records, grabbing lands and a few other issues. Over 2,000 complaints were related to land scams in Vizag city alone.
Sources said that so far the SIT has received complaints against TD minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao, Visakha East MLA V. Ramakrishna Babu, Anakapalle MLA Peela Govind Satyanarayana, TD MLC and president of Gitam University M.V.V.S. Murthi and some TD leaders for their alleged involvement in tampering of the land records and grabbing valuable lands.
“Land scams in Vizag have damaged the brand image of the city and the SIT has disappointed the public a lot with its limited powers,” said BJP floor leader in the AP Assembly and Vizag North MLA P. Vishnu Kumar Raju. “I will submit some key documents to the SIT on how private land documents were tampered with by the land-grabbers with the help of the ruling party leaders. As far as information is available, more than 30 acres of land in the city limits has been grabbed by some people who always enjoyed the support of the ruling party leaders and some officials,’’ the MLA said.
People have lost faith in the TD as more TD leaders were behind the land scams in Vizag, said YSRC leader Murthy Yadav. “Though we have no trust on the SIT, we submitted some key documents to it on how the TD leaders have grabbed valuable lands by adopting criminal methods. The SIT will not do anything against the ruling party culprits but the complaints to the SIT had hollowed the TD in Vizag region,” Mr Yadav added.
