The State government, in not so many words, has asked former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) national president N. Chandrababu Naidu to vacate his house by pasting a notice at his official residence saying it was an illegal construction, as it was located within 100 m from Krishna river.
The Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA), in the notice, said that the building would be demolished in a week if the respondent, Lingamaneni Ramesh, who owns the building and leased it to the government, did not give a satisfactory reply to the notice. Mr. Ramesh leased out his building to Mr. Naidu when the latter moved to Vijayawada from Hyderabad.
Government officials visited the former Chief Minister’s residence to serve the notice. This comes just two days after the CRDA demolished government building ‘Praja Vedika’ next to Mr. Naidu’s residence (which got the notice now) at Undavalli in Amaravati. The High Court declined to stay the action on ‘Praja Vedika.’
As soon as the ‘Praja Vedika’ was razed to the ground, there was speculation that Mr. Naidu’s official residence on leased property would also be demolished.
After he lost power in the recent elections, Mr. Naidu sought permission for his house and ‘Praja Vedika’ in a letter to Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. However, the government, without any reply to his letter, chose to pull down ‘Praja Vedika.’
Mr. Reddy, at a two-day conference of District Collectors and Superintendents of Police at ‘Praja Vedika,’ declared the building was “illegal” and said it would be pulled down to send a strong message against unauthorised constructions. He was referring to Mr. Naidu’s residence in an oblique manner.
Senior TDP leader and former Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu said the notice was politically motivated and vengeful action. He wondered how a notice could be issued when the matter was sub judice , with a public interest petition filed by YSRCP MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy pending in the High Court of Andhra Pradesh.
Recently, the State government reduced the security cover for Mr. Naidu’s family, including his MLC son and former IT and Panchayat Raj Minister Nara Lokesh.
