GAINING GROUND: MLA’ s ‘palace’ to land GVMC in court

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, Dec 17, 2012: The GVMC town planning staff is now caught between the devil and the deep sea.

While it was confirmed that controversial Congress MLA U. V. Ramana Murthy Raju, alias Kannababu has constructed part of his palatial house in Seethammadhara on land belonging to the Simhachalam Devasthanam Board, the endowments department is now seriously contemplating approaching the court, challenging the GVMC for approving the building plan.

According to an earlier order of the High Court, construction on some of the land survey numbers in parts of urban and rural areas is prohibited, includ

ing the one on which Mr Kannababu constructed his house. Acting on the orders of the AP Lokayukta, settlement and land survey department teams here readied a report which established that the MLA constructed a part of his house in 700 sq yards of land in Survey No. 275, belonging to the Simhachalam Devasthanam.

While the encroachment was allegedly done by one Srinivasa Cooperative Society, the MLA constructed his house on 1,066 sq yards belonging to the society in Survey No. 7, and on the adjacent 700 sq yards of the Devasthanam land.

It was in June 2011 that the AP Lokayukta, on the basis of reports about some MLAs’ alleged encroachment, asked the settlement and land survey department to submit a report.

After a thorough examination of the land and related records, the survey department recently readied the report and sent it to the Lokayukta and also to the state government.

“After some reports emerged in the media, we have asked our surveyors to survey the land in which the MLA constructed his house. It was found in the survey done by us that the MLA’s house was constructed on the site belonging to Survey No. 275 where construction is prohibited. I wonder how the GVMC could give its approval for the building

plan. It’s clearly contempt of court as stated in an earlier order of the High Court, that construction in certain survey numbers belonging to the Devasthanam is prohibited,” said Simhachalam Devasthanam executive officer incharge, D. Brahamaramba.

Highly placed sources in the endowments department told this correspondent that they would be approaching the court against the GVMC soon.

The ACB has filed cases on September 24 against the MLA and his family members, including his wife, daughter and son, for amassing huge wealth using his power. The special court for ACB cases ordered the ACB to file a case and probe while hearing a petition filed by Adari Adimurthy.

MLA had an earlier tryst with ACB On October 17, the ACB had raided premises belonging to Kannababu after allegations by one Adari Adimurthy that the MLA’s assets increased manifold within a span of five to six years.

Adimurthy had submitted 28 documents.