In the early hours of Saturday, the under construction building of YSRCP Congress party’s central office in Tadepalli was razed by the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authorities. The demolition was carried out despite the fact that the YSRCP has approached the High Court over the recent notices given by the authorities concerned on illegal encroachment of government land.
Immediately after the illegal building was demolished, YSR Congress party leaders and supporters started crying foul on Chief Minister and TDP supremo Chandra Babu Naidu for using his power and authority to bulldoze their party’s central office. They started questioning why Naidu, who made a lot of hue and cry over the ‘Praja Vedika’ building which was demolished immediately after Jagan came to power in 2019, is resorting to such vindictive politics in no time.
Digging deeper into the facts, the proposed site for construction of the YSR party office originally registered as an irrigation land of Water Resources department. The two acre government land was illegally leased at a nominal price when Jagan Mohan Reddy was the Chief Minister of the state to construct a central office for his party. Moreover, there are allegations that some of the party leaders are eyeing to grab 15 acres land adjoining this site. Surprisingly, they started construction even before getting any permissions from the department concerned.
Jagan Mohan Reddy expressed displeasure over the demolition act and called it as next level of vendetta politics. But, many are pointing out that Jagan’s destructive policies and the current actions on illegal encroachment of government lands are not one and the same.
People of Andhra Pradesh are openly questioning Jagan’s integrity on alloting government property for party office at a low price. They are of the opinion that demolishing a goverment related building like ‘Praja Vedika’ and illegally leased ‘Party Office’ are not the same. While the former is a destructive act, the latter is a progressive step, believed many.
Very recently, the inside visuals of the luxurious palace in Rushikonda constructed to house Jagan’s residence after coming to power for the second time were exposed to the public. The fact that hundreds of crores were squandered for its construction has drawn massive criticism from all quarters. Now, the illegal encroachment of government land has further landed the party in more trouble.