The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) has demanded a comprehensive probe into the alleged grabbing of the Dasapalla lands in Visakhapatnam. The party leaders alleged that some vested interests, using their power, were grabbing lands, valued at thousands of crores of rupees.
Addressing a media conference on the issue at the party office at Maddilapalem, in Visakhapatnam, on October 6, CPI-M district secretary M. Jaggu Naidu and Secretariat member B. Ganga Rao demanded that the government should conduct a probe and punish the guilty. They alleged that there was a controversy on the Daspalla lands in an extent of 15 acres, in Survey numbers 1196, 1197, 1027 and 1028. The land value would be around ₹2,000 crore.
In 2001, the Survey Department had conducted a survey on the said lands and placed the lands under 22A list and G.O. no. 657 was also issued on those lands. The CPI(M) leaders alleged that some vested interests were trying to grab those lands for a long time. The successive governments have not made any efforts to protect those lands. They demanded that the government should explore all the possibilities for taking possession of these lands.
Dabbanda lands:
The CPI(M) leaders also said that the government had given 80 acres of lands to 120 economically poor people for cultivation, at Dabbanda village of Anandapuram mandal on the outskirts of the city, during the 1970s. In 2015, then government had taken the land from the beneficiaries, who were Dalits and tribal people, for construction of TIDCO houses. While TIDCO houses were constructed in 66 acres, about 14 acres was illegally occupied by an influential man, they alleged. They demanded that the government should take over the land in the illegal occupation of the accused.
Similarly, they also demanded a probe into the grabbing of lands at Rushikonda and action against the accused, failing which the government would have to face the wrath of the people, they said. CPI(M) leaders R.K.S.V. Kumar and V. Krishna Rao were present at the media conference.
