Visakhapatnam: The multi-crore land scam in Vizag city is getting murkier as the government’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) has unearthed scams one after another in the past few days.
On Wednesday SIT officials conducted surprise raids at six different places in Vizag city, including at the house of former TD corporator M. Sombabu at Madhurwada.
Sources in SIT said that the team found incriminating documents and seized the original revenue registers pertaining to the SFA (settlement fair adangal) which went missing from Mandal Revenue Offices and Collector’s office. A senior officer with SIT said that the SFA contains details of government lands and lands allotted to freedom fighters and ex-servicemen and farmers, after a survey conducted in 1952. Sombabu was taken into police custody for questioning.
Apart from the raids in the Madhurawada region, the SIT also conducted raids in the Seethammadhara area in Vizag city. Joint collector G. Srijana, who is in SIT said they are examining all the NOCs given for sale of lands given to ex-servicemen, freedom fighters and political sufferers and for this purpose SIT has formed six more squads to verify the 69 NOCs.
Sources said that documents and registers were deliberately removed to grab government and assigned land by uploading different names in the website.
Interestingly most of the documents pertain to lands in Madurwada, Kommadi and Anandapuram have been in focus of the land scam from the beginning.
Former corporator Sombabu had sold some lands allotted to ex-servicemen to private individuals after obtaining a no objection certificate in 2004.
YSRC’s leader P. Murthy Yadav in his petition to the SIT and also collector Pravin Kumar suggested that all scams beginning from land pooling in Ozone Valley till Mudapaka land pooling and violation of open space by builders should be brought under the gamut of SIT.
In 2002, vice-chairman of Vuda Kona Sasidhar submitted a comprehensive report to the government stating that the scam relating to land pooling in Pardesipalem and construction of building in open space had taken place and it amounted to more than Rs 650 crore.
