A month on, CRDA fails to make land scam probe report public

VIJAYAWADA: A month has elapsed since the Mandadam land scam came to light, but the AP Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) is yet to make public the report of the probe conducted into the issue. The inordinate delay is giving credence to the allegations by social activists that the CRDA is trying to hush up the issue.

Though the CRDA has lodged a criminal complaint against a computer operator and the person, who received benefits by pooling in a non-existent plot, it is yet to announce if or not any of its own officials are involved.Additional Commissioner of CRDA, who headed the inquiry committee constituted to look into the issue, told TNIE that he had submitted the draft probe report to Commissioner Cherukuri Sreedhar after the latter returned from Japan in the last week of February.

Sources said that the report was under the perusal of the commissioner since then. “The commissioner will look into it and then the officials will review the findings of the report. Accordingly, action will be initiated against the responsible, if any,” an official said.

However, social activists found fault with the CRDA for the delay and questioned the very sanctity of the probe.

“Commissioner Cherukuri Sreedhar said that the report would be ready in three days. But even after 30 days, the report is not forthcoming. The CRDA is trying to protect the officials involved by making lower-rung staff the scapegoats. How can anybody trust the authenticity of the report when the CRDA’s transparency is under question?” asked Ch Babu Rao, convenor of the CPM capital region committee. He demanded that the probe report be immediately made public.

It may be recalled that Pathan Gows Khan of Guntur created fake documents of a land that did not exist in revenue records, and had participated in the Land Pooling Scheme (LPS) to receive three plots and other benefits from CRDA.

The issue came to light when the villagers of Mandadam dug into the credentials of Gows Khan when he sold one of the three plots and put up another for sale.

Babu Rao further demanded that Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu answered the questions in the ongoing Assembly session.

“There are several irregularities in land transactions in Amaravati, in which the ruling party members are also involved. So, CM Naidu should appoint a commission headed by a sitting judge to look into all land transactions done in the last four years,”he demanded.