As expected, the demolition drive taken up by the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) on the alleged illegal constructions on the banks of Krishna river, including that of former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu at Vundavalli in Amaravati is meeting with stiff resistance.
Several owners of these buildings have restricted the authorities from entering their premises to serve notices stating that they all had got permission from various authorities including the then Vijaywada Urban Development Authority and local gram panchayat.
The residents are putting up boards stating that theirs was not illegal constructions. As a result, the CRDA authorities are now compelled to bring all the old records to find out whether the permissions were given by the previous authorities were as per rules or not.
Senior Telugu Desam Party leader and former finance minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu said the demolition notice was nothing but an act of vengeance and witch-hunt by the Jagan Mohan Reddy government.
“The permission for Lingamaneni Ramesh guest house was given way back in 2008 when Jagan’s father Y S Rajasekhar Reddy was in power. The layout was approved by the local gram panchayat, as there was no CRDA then. Naidu had taken it on temporary lease for his residence, since he had to run the administration from Amaravati,” he said.
He sought to know why the YSR government had given permissions for the buildings if they were illegal constructions.
“Why didn’t he take action against them then itself?” he asked.
