TDP Inaugurates Its New National Office, YSRCP Moves HC Calling It ‘Illegal’ Land Allotment

Chandrababu Naidu, Party’s national president at Mangalagiri in Guntur district, inaugurated Telugu DP’s newly constructed State office on Friday. Alla Ramakrishna Reddy, YSRCP leader filed a PIL, claiming that the allotment of land (3.6 acres) for the construction of the office was illegal and arbitrary.

The lease for the land, where the new office of the party was built, was issued by the Revenue Department through a government order in June 2017, for Rs 1000 per acre per annum, for 99 years. Ramakrishna Reddy in his Public Interest Litigation submitted on Thursday has requested the High Court to cancel the order and to order the CRDA (Commissioner of the Capital Region Development Authority) to demolish the construction.

The PIL claimed that the land on which the TDP office has been built is ‘vaguporamboke’ (unassessed government land by a water stream), and henceforth, is prohibited from the allotment. It also states - the office building will affect the surrounding water bodies and flow of the stream, affecting ecological balance. The land allotment order itself states that “water bodies, if any, existing in the land should not be disturbed and should be allowed to continue their natural course.”

The MLA also alleged that the CRDA sent a notice to the TDP, as the area of the site mentioned in the building plan was larger than the 3.6 acres allotted in the lease. According to the PIL document, in a letter dated July 20, 2018, the CRDA had intimated the TDP of various shortfalls “including the variation in the area of site mentioned in the plan with that of land that is actually leased” to the TDP, directing the TDP to “submit the ownership document for the balance area other than the area allotted through the lease deed”.

Moreover, claiming that the TDP had not submitted the required proof of ownership for the extra land, R. Reddy has requested that the HC must order the CRDA to demolish the structure.

This is not the first time that the YSRCP has insisted on the destruction of a building associated with Naidu. In a month after the YSRCP government came to power, authorities demolished the PrajaVedika building located a few meters away from Naidu’s rented residence in Undavalli.