Former bureaucrat E.A.S. Sarma has urged Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney to direct the district administration to identify an alternative land for the CRPF battalion near the Prahalada Prayer Hall and hand over the land belonging to Visakhapatnam Zilla Grandhalaya (VZG).
In an e-mail sent to Ms. Sawhney, Mr. Sarma said that about one acre of land at a central location in the city was allotted to the VZG for construction of a library building.
“The VZG has adequate funds to set up the library. However, some political leaders misguided the government and tried to grab the land. In the wake of vehement opposition from people, the government finally dropped the idea of alienating the land to private parties and agreed to restore it to the VZG,” Mr. Sarma pointed out.
Alternate land
Meanwhile, the local authorities allowed the CRPF to temporarily use the premises. “We have been requesting the government to allot an alternate land to CRPF and allow the VZG to take up the construction of a library building there,” Mr. Sarma said in his e-mail.
Lamenting that VZG was operating from a congested rented building, Mr. Sarma wanted that the amounts collected as cess were transferred by the local authorities to the VZG immediately.
