Visakhapatnam: The plot thickens against G.L. Ganeswara Rao, survey inspector in the rural tahsildar office, who was arrested for tampering 360 acres government land records. He is alleged to have acquired blank 'pattadar' passbooks. Preliminary investigations have revealed that Mr Rao operated from district collector's office. A senior officer, on condition of anonymity, said that Mr Rao had appointed agents in all the key sections of the revenue department and also engaged brokers to strike deals. Other tahsildars also cooperated with him for a cut.
“We have arrested former tahsildar of Bheemili B.T.V. Rama Rao and tahsildar Majji Shankara Rao on charges of land grabbing, tampering of land records and corruption. The Special Investigation Team has identified more tahsildars, who were involved in irregularities and lands scams in association with the survey inspector," said the police. Sources said that names of three tahsildars, who actively participated in the scam, have surfaced. The police will grill to get more information about Ganeswara Rao.
"An important fact of the case is diversion of 'pattadar' passbooks from the collector's office. More than 144 passbooks were found in the house of survey inspector's driver, B. Srinivasa Rao. Of them 90 were blank and 55 were filled. DCP Dr K. Fakirappa said that police will get more about the irregularities of Ganeswara Rao once he is taken into custody from the judicial remand on Thursday.
“Usually, passbooks have serial numbers and will be sent to MROs but we wonder how Ganeswara Rao had diverted hundreds of,” said a senior police officer. Several ex-service personnel, who were sanctioned land and could not get the passbooks, also approached him. He was solving their problem but taking away a good chunk of land from them by getting no objection certificate from the collector's office.
