The BJP has kicked up a row by locating its State office on the flood banks of Krishna violating provisions of the River Conservancy Act, 1884.
While the Act is the final word on constructions on the riverbed, governments in the past had issued orders permitting them on the flood banks. Curiously, no official raised this point when none other than Union Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu performed ‘bhoomi puja’ (ground breaking ceremony) for the party’s State office.
Major Irrigation Minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao had on December 31 ordered officials to look into violations of the Act and take appropriate action. According to the Act, lessees are allowed to build only ‘temporary’ structures on the river bed. The land for construction of the river front office was donated by the party’s Narsapur MP Gokaraju Gangaraju. Incidentally, Mr. Gangaraju owns a private riverfront resort abutting the site where the BJP’s party office has been proposed. The resort, according to officials who did not wish to be quoted, is an unauthorised construction.
Mr. Umamaheswara Rao who has gone the whole hog against unauthorised constructions is now in a precarious state. BJP leaders, on the day of the bhoomi puja, asserted they would not construct an office without permission and would secure all clearances.
