HYDERABAD: B.V. Krishna Kumar, an assistant planning officer (APO) of the Shankarpally zone of the HMDA, had travelled to the USA on January 24, a day before his boss, S. Balakrishna, former director, was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in an illegal assets case. He has since been extending his leave.
The HMDA (Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority) has since suspended Krishna Kumar.
“Since the last week of January, Krishna Kumar was not reporting for work. Ahead of his foreign visit, he had applied for leave for two months. On the completion of the period, he applied for an extension of leave for two more months,” said a HMDA official.
The official said that ACB officials were at the HMDA office since Thursday morning and were probing the files that Krishna Kumar had cleared.
Verification revealed that Krishna Kumar had cleared dozens of files which included issuing transferable development rights (TDR) certificates without even a site inspection.
In one instance, the official said, Krishna Kumar had issued a TDR certificate for a 22,046-square yard land parcel in Survey No.s 314 to 317 of Puppalguda, Shankarpally, to one Sravan Kumar. In another case, he had issued a TDR certificate for 11,698 square yards in Survey No.s 330 and 332 of Puppalguda without verifying the ownership documents or inspecting the site.
The TDR is a means of making available additional built-up area in lieu of the area relinquished or surrendered by the owner of the land for developmental purposes. The TDR holder can use the extra built up area himself or sell it to another person.
There were also allegations against Krishna Kumar of favouring builders and processing their files without following due procedure, which cost the government thousands of crores of rupees.
The HMDA is divided into four zones — Shankarpally, Shamshabad , Ghatkesar and Medchal — and are overseen by two directors. But Balakrishna, under the BRS regime, handled most of the HMDA region and the other director was restricted to two mandals in the Medchal zone.
Among all of them, Shankarpally is where scores of layouts have come up and land was also acquired for development of infrastructure including roads. Krishna Kumar used to take care of that zone, officials said.
