india

Updated: Sep 21, 2019 17:29 IST

The Andhra Pradesh government has given a week’s time to Telugu Desam Party president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu to vacate his rented house on the banks of the Krishna River at Vundavalli in Amaravati.

A notice to this effect was pasted on the compound wall of Naidu’s residence by the authorities of AP Capital Region Development Authority on Saturday.

The notice, dated September 19, issued in the name of Lingamaneni Ramesh, the landlord of the former chief minister’s residence, said the owner should remove the construction within seven days from the receipt of the notice.

“If the said unauthorized construction is not removed by you within seven days of the receipt of the order, the APCRDA will proceed to remove the same,” it said.

The latest order follows a preliminary notice issued to Ramesh on the alleged illegal construction on the banks of the Krishna river that was leased out to the TDP president.

An official familiar with the development said the notices were issued under Section 115(1) and 115 (2) of the APCRDA Act for removal of the unauthorized construction which comprises ground floor and first floor, along with swimming pool and ground floor dressing room etc., as the construction was done without any prior permission from a competent authority.

“Naidu’s residence is located within 100 metres from Krishna River’s course in an extent of 1.318 acres,” he said.

Ramesh, in his reply, claimed that the permission for the construction of the building in which Naidu has been staying, was given by the Vundavalli gram panchayat during the regime of late Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, father of present chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.

He said he had obtained all necessary clearances from the government for the building. But the CRDA authorities were not convinced about his claims and disclosed that the gram panchayat resolution could not be taken as a valid reason for the construction of the illegal structure and there was no permission from the panchayat as well.

YSRC official spokesman and MLA K Parthasarthy said the previous TDP government had declared all the constructions on the river front as illegal, but claimed exemption for Naidu’s residence on the ground that it was a government building.

“But when our government served a notice in July, Naidu changed tune and said the building belonged to Lingamaneni Ramesh and he was only a tenant. So, we have issued a final notice to Ramesh to demolish the building on his own. If the TDP chief has any respect for the law of the land, he should immediately vacate the house, instead of making it a political issue,” Parthasarthy said.

TDP’s official spokesperson Panchumarthi Anuradha said the latest notice was nothing but an overall conspiracy by the Jagan Mohan Reddy government to create trouble for Naidu and throw him out on the streets.

“The CRDA officials admit that the permission was given during the YSR government. Does Jagan blame his own father? Will he sack his party MLA Malladi Vishnu, who was the chairman of the Vijayawada and Guntur Urban Development Authority which gave the construction permits to Lingamaneni?” she asked.

Anuradha alleged that in the past, the YSRC government had demolished Praja Vedika, a conference hall adjacent to Naidu’s house, only with political vendetta. “Now, they want to demolish his house only to make him homeless,” she alleged.