Vijay Sai critical of SIT probe into land-grab charges

“Land grabbing has become menace in the city with politicians and their henchmen in collusion with officials grabbing huge chunks of land by altering records in the online system,” alleged MP and YSR Congress Party leader V. Vijay Sai Reddy.

Mr. Reddy, who is on a padayatra across the 72 wards in the city, claims in every ward people have come to him with applications seeking action against land grabbing.

“More applications were received in some wards in Gajuwaka, Pendurthi, PM Palem and Madhurawada,” he said. Change of records from manual to digital mode and to the online system, has paved way for all the wrongdoing, he alleged.

“In the online system, it is easy to tamper the records and it can be done by a computer operator. It is seen that in most cases, the original names of the people with pattadaar passbooks and enjoyers, are removed and names of land grabbers are inserted. The poor people do not even know that their names have been removed and they no longer own or enjoy the land,” he alleged.

Criticising the SIT (special investigation team) report, he said, “the investigation may have been taken up by the officers concerned seriously and earnestly, but government appears to have set it aside. It has been over three months and so far no action has been taken and neither the report was made public, which is mandatory.”

Water scarcity

Another important aspect that appears to be a major issue in the city is water scarcity, Mr. Reddy said.

“In Gajuwaka, GVMC is supplying water for 45 minutes, once in every two days. There is water scarcity in the city and officials concerned do not want to accept it. Even when I told them that I will give 15 vehicles to transport water across the city from my MPLADs fund, they asked me to scale it down to 5 and cited maintenance issue,” he said.

He alleges that there is resentment among people against the TDP government, as the government did not live up to its promise of providing employment. “The Chief Minister in his election manifesto, promised at least one job for a person in each family or a stipend of ₹ 2,000 per family. He failed on both counts and unemployment has gone up,” he said.

Apart from unemployment, he said residents have come out openly citing pollution problem. “In areas such as Gnanapuram, Malkapuram, Gajuwaka and Old Town, both dust and industrial pollution levels have been going up with every passing year and it has reached an alarming proportion . Even fishermen along the coast are unhappy, as their catch has dwindled due to pumping of untreated effluent by various industries,” said Mr. Reddy.