Three more members added to SIT on ‘land scam’

About 1,400 applications were received, says SIT chief

February 15, 2020 08:33 pm | Updated 08:33 pm IST - VISAKHAPATNAM

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) members at a meeting in Visakhapatnam on Saturday.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) members at a meeting in Visakhapatnam on Saturday.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT), constituted by the State government in October last year to undertake fresh inquiry into the alleged land scam in Vizag, has strengthened its team by adding three more members.

Initially, the SIT was constituted with three members comprising former IAS officers Vijay Kumar and Y.V. Anuradha and retired district and sessions judge T. Bhaskara Rao. Now it has added another former bureaucrat K. Durganand Prasad Rao, an IAS officer from Chhattisgarh, Commissioner of Police Rajeev Kumar Meena and Chief Conservator of Forest Rahul Pandey.

This was disclosed here on Saturday by Mr. Vijay Kumar who heads the SIT as chairman.

It may be recollected that the SIT had submitted a 150-page interim report to Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy in the last week of January and had requested for extension of time to complete the investigation. Based on the request, the State government has extended the tenure by another three months.

Speaking to the media, Mr. Vijay Kumar said that about 1,400 applications were received and the SIT had already examined around 400 applications.

According to him, most of the applications scrutinised so far deal with irregularities in allotment of government lands to private individual or private organisations, NOC lands and change of classifications, which includes 22A lands.

“In our reports we have mentioned about the nature of irregularities, who is responsible for the irregularities and who has benefited from it. But the final report will be disclosed later,” he said.

SIT members Anuradha and T. Bhaskara Rao, District Collector V. Vinay Chand, GVMC Commissioner G. Srijana, VMRDA Commisioner Koteswara Rao, DCP Ranga Reddy, District Revenue Officer M. Sridevi, Deputy Collector Sailaja and others were present.

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