VISAKHAPATNAM: Cancellation of the public hearing on the land irregularities in Visakhapatnam is still a raging topic of debate for many Opposition parties. Majority of the Opposition parties criticised the government’s decision on constituting Special Investigation Team (SIT) instead of ordering a CBI probe and cancelling the scheduled public hearing on June 15.
Post card movement
Lok Satta announced that it is going to launch a post card movement by sending 10,000 post cards addressed to the Chief Justice of the Hyderabad High Court, demanding CBI probe into the issue. They will ask for the court’s intervention by taking the issue suo motu for a comprehensive investigation. The Lok Satta will stage a dharna at the collectorate here on Monday. Party leader B Baabji briefed the media on the decisions taken by the party meeting at the public library here.
Victims stage dharna
Meanwhile, the victims of land grab in the wake of the VUDA land pooling scheme from Mudapaka village on Friday staged a dharna at the Gandhi statue near GVMC, seeking justice. Mudapaka Bhoo Parirakshana Samithi convener B Venakara Rao and co-convener S Ganesh demanded a CBI probe. In addition, former minister Konathala Ramakrishna too demanded a CBI probe into the land irregularities.
As many as 168 victims from 26 mandals of the district submitted their complaints to the joint collector on Thursday.
“One Cabinet minister and even district collector said that large stretches of land had been occupied and records pertaining to thousands of acres had been tampered and misplaced in the district. The government must order CBI probe to bring out the facts. When similar allegations were made against him, the then Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy ordered a CBI inquiry and the investigation agency gave me a clean chit,” Konathala told newsmen at Anakapalle.
Further, he said that he had written a letter to the Governor requesting him a CBI probe into this issue and Konathala also showed a copy of that letter to the media.
Animated discussion in TDP quarters
The ruling Telugu Desam Party cadre are also discussed the land grab issue seriously. As party supremo Chandrababu Naidu ordered a three-member committee to investigate the issue under the headship of senior leader and Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, all the district party cadre is curiously discussing the repercussions of the inquiry report.