Days after demolishing the Praja Vedika structure and serving a notice to Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief Chandrababu Naidu, the Jagan Mohan Reddy-led Andhra Pradesh government has now issued a notice to the TDP saying its Vishakhapatnam office building was illegally constructed.
The commissioner of Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) issued a notice to the TDP city wing president under section 452 of the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Act and section 7 of the Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation Act to submit documents regarding the party office land within a week.
The GVMC also said in the notice, issued on June 28, that the TDP office will be demolished by the corporation if the party fails to present the legal documents in seven days.
Responding to the GVMC's claim, the TDP leaders said that the party office was constructed on land taken on lease from the government.
TDP's response
"We were given the land on lease by the revenue department in 2001 for Rs 25,000 per annum. The lease allotment was made in a proper manner and it was issued on the orders of the then collector S Narsinga Rao. Incidentally, I was the city president back then," TDP Urban president SA Rahman was quoted as saying in The Times of India.
An emergency meeting of the party leaders was convened by Rahman on Monday to decide the future course of action. The leaders were also to meet the GVMC commissioner in this regard.
Meanwhile, the GVMC chief city planner said that TDP had secured approval for building plan online and was now being asked to furnish documents as a regular course of action.
Demolition of Naidu's residence
A demolition notice was earlier served to Naidu on June 28, asking him to vacate his residence in Amaravati. Terming the construction of the building illegal, the AP government had asked Naidu to explain why the property should not be demolished.
According to the government, the house violates the norms of the River Conservation Act as it is located within 100 metres from the Krishna riverbank in Undavalli in Guntur district.
The notice came two days after the demolition of the Praja Vedika. The demolition was ordered by Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy after holding his government's first Collector's Conference at the Praja Vedika.
"Praja Vedika is an illegal structure. It is constructed violating rules. A person of the stature of a Chief Minister had allowed construction of this building. If a CM himself violates rules, imagine the corruption prevailing down the administration?" said Jagan at the meeting.
Jagan took over the Praja Vedika structure, in a move that TDP termed as "vendetta politics" and alleged that the government showed no courtesy to the former CM and that his belongings were thrown out of the building.
Senior TDP leader and former minister Y Ramakrishnudu had termed the government's action in taking possession of Praja Vedika as 'witch-hunting'. "The government has deliberately resorted to this action. If it did not want to give Praja Vedika, it could have communicated the same in writing," he said.
