Jagan Naidu

The Jaganmohan Reddy government has asked former chief minister Chandrababu Naidu to vacate his residence in Amaravati. A demolition notice was served to Naidu on Friday, June 28.

Terming the construction of the building illegal, the newly elected Andhra Pradesh government asked Naidu to explain why the property should not be demolished. Besides the notice for Naidu, a similar warning was served to 49 others.

According to the government, the house violates the norms of the River Conservation Act as it is located within 100 metres from the Krishna riverbank in Undavalli in Guntur district.

Naidu is a tenant at the Lingamaneni guesthouse. The house was originally owned by an industrialist but was leased by the previous state government for the official residence of the chief minister.

This notice comes just two days after the demolition of the Praja Vedika. The demolition was ordered by Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy after holding his government's first Collector's Conference at the Praja Vedika.

"Praja Vedika is an illegal structure. It is constructed violating rules. A person of the stature of a Chief Minister had allowed construction of this building. If a CM himself violates rules, imagine the corruption prevailing down the administration?" said Jagan at the meeting.

"This is the last meeting in this building. After Tuesday's meeting with police officials including Director General of Police (DGP) and others, this building will be demolished. I order officials to demolish the building the very next day of the end of this meeting," he said.

Demolition of Praja Vedika
Demolition of Praja Vedika underway.Twitter

After the demolition, Senior YSR Congress Party leader and Rajya Sabha member Vijayasai Reddy took to Twitter and said, "Naidu should be evicted from his residence immediately and the building should be demolished".

"The private residence where Naidu is staying is also illegal and Naidu should vacate the place immediately. If a property has been identified as illegal and if it's constructed on the river bed, the only option left is to demolish," tweeted Vijayasai.

YSRCP MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy had earlier said that he will make sure that Naidu gets evicted from his residence on the banks of Krishna River and the building is demolished. He had also criticised Naidu for staying in an illegal construction after making tall promises over the construction of capital Amaravati.

Jagan took over the building last Saturday in a move that TDP termed as "vendetta politics" and alleged that the government showed no courtesy to the former CM and that his belongings were thrown out of the building.

Senior TDP leader and former minister Y Ramakrishnudu had termed the government's action in taking possession of Praja Vedika as 'witch-hunting'. "The government has deliberately resorted to this action. If it did not want to give Praja Vedika, it could have communicated the same in writing," he said.