Visakhapatnam North MLA and BJP Floor Leader in the Legislative Assembly, P. Vishnu Kumar Raju on Friday created a flutter by expressing doubts over the efficacy of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that was constituted to probe the major land scandal in Visakhapatnam, and said he would bring to light another scam in the port city in a fortnight.
Addressing mediapersons here, Mr. Raju said the gravity of the situation should be assessed by the Chief Minister to get the SIT dig deeper into details and expose the culprits. The fact that two Ministers — Ch. Ayyanna Patrudu and Ganta Srinivasa Rao —demanded an inquiry (one of them wanted an investigation by the CBI) and he himself raised the issue on the floor of the Assembly warranted a speedy inquiry by the SIT, which should comprise retired judges.
Mr. Raju said about 1,400 acres of assigned land was fraudulently acquired from innocent farmers and shown as given under the Land Pooling Scheme (LPS) to the Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority (VUDA).
‘Credit goes to Collector’
The encroachment of lands and tampering of records have been going on in Visakhapatnam since 2009 and but for the initiative of officers like the present Collector Praveen Kumar, they would have never come to light. There were many government lands shown as private properties by altering the records.
