VIJAYAWADA: Finally, the report of the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which inquired into the Visakhapatnam land scam, was tabled before the State Cabinet on Tuesday and it reportedly came up with startling revelations and named several bureaucrats, including some IAS officers who served in Visakhapatnam district earlier, besides politicians in the massive land scam.
According to sources, names of former Revenue Minister in the previous Congress government and YSRC leader Dharmana Prasada Rao and several IAS officers including the present Collector of Visakhapatnam district Praveen Kumar, the present Port Trust Chairman Krishna Babu, other senior IAS officers, including Lav Agarwal, Sunil Sharma, Sandeep Kumar Sultania, Veerabrahmaiah have figured in the SIT report.
Except for the name of Dharmana, the SIT report does not point fingers at any high profile politician contrary to the charges levelled by ruling and Opposition parties. The report, however, did name several local level politicians, sources said.
The IAS officers, whose names reportedly figured in the report, earlier worked in Visakhapatnam district in different capacities and some of them are now allotted to Telangana State after bifurcation.However, TNIE cannot confirm the veracity of these claims independently as officials refused to comment on the issue.Though the name of Human Resource Development Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao did rounds in the scam, the SIT is learnt to have given a clean chit to him.
Following the widespread allegations of land scam in Visakhapatnam district, the government constituted the SIT headed by Vineet Brijlal in June last year to inquire into land grabbing and tampering of records. The SIT received 2,875 representations (including 1,259 land grabbing, 912 other land issues, 704 tampering of records) from people of 40 mandals during the course of investigation.
After taking up inquiry, SIT submitted its report in January this year but it was not tabled before the Cabinet till now. The report recommended criminal investigation against those who are involved in the scam, sources said.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet meeting held under the chairmanship of CM Chandrababu Naidu, discussed at length about the SIT report and decided to take action against the government employees involved in the land scam and also to appoint a three-member committee for recovering the lands and taking corrective measures to prevent such scams in future.
Panel for land recovery
The State cabinet decides to appoint a three-member committee for recovering the lands and taking corrective measures to prevent such scams in future. The committee consists of secretaries of Revenue, General Administration and Law departments and it has to submit its report within 30 days.