The Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted to probe into the alleged land scams in Visakhapatnam district has completed its investigation and is all set to submit report to the State government by this weekend.
It learnt that the SIT has named 25 to 30 prominent persons, including a few serving bureaucrats, senior government officials, former bureaucrats and a few persons of repute in the city, who have been involved in the alleged land scams.
The involvement of political leaders is yet to be ascertained as their direct participation in the irregularities has not been established, sources said.
Recommendations
In comparison to the report submitted by the SIT that was constituted by the then TDP government, this SIT has not only identified the lapses but also named the persons responsible and their role in the scam. The SIT has also recommended measures to the government to prevent land irregularities in the future.
The SIT that began work in October 2019 initially comprised three members—former IAS officers Vijay Kumar and Y.V. Anuradha and retired district and sessions judge T. Bhaskara Rao.
Later, the number of member was increased to six by adding former bureaucrat K. Durganand Prasad Rao from Chhattisgarh, former Visakhapatnam Commissioner of Police Rajeev Kumar Meena and former Chief Conservator of Forest (Visakhapatnam) Rahul Pandey.
The SIT probed into six categories of lapses such as change of classification, tampering with records, encroachment of government land, grabbing of government land, allotment of government land to private individuals and organisations, and NoC issued to political sufferers and freedom fighters.
1,400 representations
In total, the SIT received around 1,400 representations of which close to 400 were cleared with observations. The SIT is still to receive clarifications over their observations over many cases that have been sent to the officials and departments concerned.
The SIT has also sent its observations to the authorities concerned for action to be taken against the erring officials.
