The so-called investigation by the Special Investigation Team of police constituted by the Chandrababu Naidu government into the sensational Visakhapatnam land scam has been dubbed as a mere eyewash by the opposition parties, since it has been confined only to tampering of land records to grab precious lands, rather than illegal encroachment of lands.
Even in the restricted terms of investigation, there have been several complaints against the Telugu Desam Party leaders, sources said.
The SIT has fixed a deadline of July 15 for receiving complaints from various sections of people with regard to the Vizag land scam and according to sources, most of the complaints were targeted only against minister for higher education Ganta Srinivasa Rao.
Surprisingly, even the TDP leaders have lodged complaints against malpractices indulged in by Ganta and his companies.
For instance, a complaint lodged by senior TDP leader Thota Nagesh with the SIT authorities revealed that Pratyusha Associates, promoted by Ganta had encroached upon the government land which originally belonged to the district central library at Prahladapuram area in Visakhapatnam.
The land is now worth Rs 100 crore and it was given on lease to Pratyusha associates by the state government to develop a multiplex in 2009. Though MoU was cancelled in 2014, the company is the possession of the lands.
Even Roads and buildings minister Ch Ayyanna Patrudu submitted evidences to the SIT on how Ganta’s companies had mortgaged the government lands and raised Rs 190 crore from banks.
