The State government has decided to conduct a public hearing on June 15 over serious allegations of tampering of land records by officials to help land grabbers in Visakhapatnam. Deputy Chief Minister K.E. Krishnamurthy will be present at the hearing.
Mr. Krishnamurthy said in Vijayawada on Tuesday a team of senior officials from the Chief Commissioner of Land Administration (CCLA) and the revenue department would visit Visakhapatnam to verify the records. The team would conduct the hearing at the district Collector’s office at 11 a.m. The affected persons can lodge complaints with supporting documents. Necessary action would be taken. They need not give in to political pressure, he said. The government would take stern action against the land grabbers.
There are allegations that officials had fudged the records on the pretext that they were missing after the Hudhud cyclone. It led to protests by farmers who had been demanding an inquiry. The government, however, announced the public hearing.
Meanwhile, Roads and Buildings (R&B) Minister Ch. Ayyannapatrudu, expressing concern over the incidents of fraud involving valuable land and encroachment in and around Visakhapatnam, wanted a cell to be formed with an IAS officer to go into the complaints of the people.
To a question at a press conference in Vizag, he said even now 5,000 to 6,000 acres were under encroachment. “People are not going to police stations since police inspectors are advising them not to get into trouble with influential people and take whatever is offered and are indulging in settlements in Madhurawada area,” he said. If an IAS officer was put on the job, he would receive complaints from people and verify them, he said.
Leaders of political parties were indulging in encroachments, he said.
Visakhapatnam district Collector Pravin Kumar recently revealed that large-scale tampering of land records had occurred with official connivance in the Visakhapatnam rural mandal creating ground for litigation.
