The Forum for Good Governance (FGG) has urged Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan to order an Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) inquiry into the land scam that took place at Kollur village of Ramachandrapuram mandal of Sangareddy district.
In a letter addressed to the Governor on Saturday, FGG secretary M. Padmanabha Reddy alleged that no-objection certificates were issued for government lands based on fake patta certificates.
“On December 5, 2014, the State government constituted a task force and appointed S.K. Sinha as chairman to verify the appropriates of allotment of lands made in the combined State of A.P., as the Government of Telangana felt that in a number of cases lands allotted by the government have not been proper and not been put to the intended purpose. Further irregularities were committed in issue of no-objection certificates to government lands on fake patta certificates. In a number of cases Mr. Sinha has made detailed reports about government lands irregularly allotted and NOCs issued. Unfortunately, the Revenue department in Secretariat is acting like godfather to the involved officials and protecting the land owners who got patta certificates through fake records,” said Mr. Padmanaha Reddy in his letter.
Stating that revenue officials of erstwhile Medak district in collusion with few real estate business people have hatched a criminal conspiracy and handed over about 200 acres government land in Survey numbers 191 and 297 in Kollur and made pattas to seven companies on fake patta certificates and the said land was mutated to them in revenue records, Mr. Padmnabha Reddy said adding that Mr. Sinha has conducted a detailed inquiry and fixed responsibility on seven revenue officials and also recommended resuming the lands in the report submitted to government in 2016.
“The government should have suspended the tainted officials and further action should have been initiated. Somehow, no such action was taken. Instead, it was proposed to initiate departmental action, and requested the District Collector to send draft article of charges against the seven officials indicted by Mr. Sinha. Collectors of Medak and Sangareddy submitted a draft article of charges in the year 2016. Surprisingly no action was taken on the report for 5 years and no action initiated to resume the lands from the companies,” said the general secretary of FGG in the letter adding that out of the seven officials, four have retired four years ago while two officers have been promoted as deputy collectors.
