Land scam: Collector issues notice to RDO

Visakhapatnam: District Collector Pravin Kumar issued notice to revenue divisional officer S Venkateswarulu as why action should not be taken against him for his decisions in the court which allegedly led to sale of government lands to the private persons. The Collector issued the notice on Saturday evening directing him to reply within 15 days.

Anakapalle MLA Peela Govind Satyanarayana and executive officer of Simhachalam Devasthanam P Ramachandra Mohan lodged a complaint against the RDO for tampering the government land records.

The executive officer said due to the RDO’s decision, the endowment lands worth several crores went into the hands of the private persons. He submitted a copy of his complaint to the Special Investigating Team.

The MLA in his complaint to the Collector last week said his lands in survey number 138/2 in Ramavaram village under Anandapuram mandal were identified as government lands by the RDO and as a result a case was filed against him in Anandapuram police station.

The Collector assigned two deputy collectors to probe into the complaint lodged by the MLA and executive officer. Special deputy collector AIIC K Sattibabu was asked to inquire into the Inam lands and SETVIS project director Dr A Siri into the passbooks issued to the people under the directions of RDO Venkateswarulu. Both the deputy collectors will find out whether any procedural errors took place in the orders issued by the RDO.

The RDO, however, defended his decisions and said he followed the procedures laid down by the government. He said in case of Inam lands in Vepagunta, the ownership lay with the farmers as per the Inam register. The endowments department had failed to provide any strong evidence to claim the ownership.

Before the orders were issued to the farmers, a notice was given to the endowments department on his decision. There was no reply, the RDO said.

Even Pendurhty tahsildar clarified that all the 14 acres of land in Pendurthy belonged to the farmers. The High Court also issued orders to issue passbooks to the farmers. He said his decisions can be challenged in higher courts.

Regarding Ramavaram, the RDO said he had protected the government land. Orders were given after examining all the records and hearing arguments on either side. A detailed report will be given to the Collector, the RDO said.