Alleging that attempts are being made to dilute the gravity of land scandals in Visakhapatnam district, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member B.V. Raghavulu has demanded expansion of the scope of the inquiry and probe by CBI. It was not a question of having confidence in SIT or not, but since CBI was an autonomous agency, the inquiry should be handed over it, he said recalling that Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao also wanted the CBI to go into the land scandals.
The public hearing announced by Deputy Chief Minister K.E. Krishna Murthy should also be simultaneously taken up, he said wondering why the proposal was dropped.
Raising questions on the SIT inquiry, he said media reports suggested that thousands of acres of land was involved all over the district and though some mandal officials had even sent reports, the probe was being confined to only Kommadi and Madhurawada and 270 acres of land.
“By trying to confine the limits of the probe, was the Chief Minister trying to say that it was not a big scandal spread all over the district or trying to save the others since a few were caught?” he asked.
At a press conference here, he demanded that the Chief Minister should either clarify on the questions he raised or expand the scope of the probe to all the land scandals in the district. If the Chief Minister called for an all-party meeting his party would attend with evidence.
Pointing out that it was being toned down as a tussle between two Ministers or between TDP and YSRC, he said they were meant to downplay the magnitude. The DGP had announced that people could complain to a phone number but should clarify whether complaints relating other irregularities would also be received, Mr. Raghavulu said taking exception to his asking people not to “make unnecessary complaints.” The scope of the probe should include the disappearance of records as it would unearth more scandals and grabbing D-patta lands given to the poor by influential people, the CPI(M) leader said.
Party State Secretariat member Ch. Narsinga Rao was also present.