Opposition and BJP Turn Up The Heat On Visakhapatnam Land Scam

Update (20/6/2017): Lok Satta has launched the postcard campaign demanding a judicial inquiry into the Visakhapatnam land scam. 2761 postcards have been sent to the Chief Justice of AP High Court regarding the demand.

The cancellation of the public hearing on the Visakhapatnam land scam on June 15 has not been received well neither by the opposition parties nor the BJP. The irregularities in the land scam is still a major debate, especially the state government’s decision to constitute a Special Investigation Team instead of ordering a CBI probe.

Lok Satta has announced the launch of a post card movement. They will be sending 10,000 postcards to Chief Justice of Hyderabad High Court to demand a CBI probe. The postcards will also ask for the issue of a suo motu for an investigation. The Lok Satta will be staging a dharna at the Collectorate on Monday.

The victims of the land grab on the other hand have already staged a dharna at the Gandhi statue near GVMC. Former Minister Konthala Ramakrishna wrote a letter to the Governor requesting a CBI probe. He stated that the state government must order a CBI probe to bring out the facts and gave the example of former Chief Minister YS Rajashekara Reddy who had ordered a CBI inquiry when similar allegations had cropped up then.

BJP, the ally of TDP, also seems to no longer see eye-to-eye with the ruling party. They have demanded for a judicial inquiry into the land scam. BJP’s AP Assembly floor leader P Vishnukumar Raju stated that the SIT constituted by the government will fail to yield results in the absence of a judicial officer in the team. He further stated that the reasons for the cancellation of the public inquiry on June 15 are unknown.

In the scenario of it happening, many complaints would’ve come up before the Collectorate. He even stated that the government has ignored the land issue till now when the complaints regarding it were raised six months ago. He said that the issue would not have reached such serious proportions had the government paid heed to it back then.

The BJP leader said that in some cases, government lands were shown as private lands and sold by real estate agents. In other cases, records of private lands were tampered with and bogus registrations done. Many innocent poor and illiterate have been cheated by the scam and in certain cases, illegal registrations were done without the knowledge of the land owners who now face cases in courts and police stations.

These scams have been running from 2009 and the leader alleges that these scampsters operate with the blessings of certain political leaders.