The State government has constituted a three-member Special Investigation Team afresh to conduct a comprehensive inquiry into the allegations of tampering of land records in Visakhapatnam and surrounding mandals.
The SIT will be headed by retired IAS officer Vijay Kumar. Retired IAS officer Y.V. Anuradha and retired district and sessions judge T. Bhaskar Rao will be the members of the SIT. The government issued a G.O. to this effect on Thursday. Earlier, the Telugu Desam Party government had formed an SIT headed by IPS officer Vineeth Brijlal.
The tenure of the new SIT has been set as three months from the date of assumption of charge, and a comprehensive report should be submitted to the government within the same period.
The main areas of the investigation by the SIT would include all cases of change of classification of govt. lands, assignments made to ex-servicemen, political sufferers where NOCs have been given for disposal of land, cases of land grabbing and encroachment of government land by private individuals, identification of persons who committed tampering of land records and officials or non-officials who are beneficiaries of such tampering of land records.
The SIT has been given powers to call any person or officer for inquiry and also examine any record pertaining to the land transactions in Visakhapatnam.
The members would be paid ₹2 lakh per month as honorarium.
