india

Updated: Jun 28, 2019 23:10 IST

The Andhra Pradesh government on Friday served an eviction notice on owners of a bungalow on the banks of Krishna river in Amaravati, where Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu, ousted from power last month, has been staying for nearly five years.

Officials of the AP Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA), led by assistant director Y Narender Reddy, visited the residence and handed a copy of the notice. The former chief minister was present in the house when the authorities delivered the notice, addressed to industrialist Ramesh Lingamaneni, owner of the bungalow.

The letter asked Lingamaneni to vacate the premises and demolish the building, saying it had been identified as an unauthorized construction falling within 100 metres of the Krishna river bank. The notice identified the following illegal constructions in the residence: a building with G+1 (ground plus one) structure, swimming pool, helipad and 10 temporary sheds built without permission within 100 metres of Krishna river.

The APCRDA gave a week’s time to Lingamaneni “ to comply with the order, failing which the authorities would go ahead with the demolition without any further notice”, an official familiar with the development said on condition of anonymity.

Naidu moved to Amaravati, chosen as the site of a new state capital, soon after coming to power in residuary Andhra Pradesh in June 2014 after the state’s bifurcation to carve out a separate state of Telangana. He chose to stay in the bungalow owned by Lingamaneni at Vundavalli.

Suitable modifications were made to the house to meet his security requirements.

Naidu’s TDP lost power in May to YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSR Congress Party, which won state assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh by a landslide.

On the orders of Reddy, the chief minister, APCRDA has demolished Praja Vedika, a conference hall constructed adjacent to the residence. The hall was being used by Naidu to meet people and hold official meetings.

According to a senior TDP leader familiar with the development, who asked not to be named, Naidu would be operating from the party headquarters located in Guntur town from Monday, given that Praja Vedika had been demolished and he was being compelled to shift his residence as well. “He will be available five days in a week for all party leaders, cadre, followers and visitors,” the party leader said.

The CRDA submitted identified nearly 60 such constructions, including 22 big buildings that came up in violation of the law. “We have started serving notices on the owners of all such buildings from Friday. Naidu’s building is among them,” the official cited above said.

Lingamaneni could not be reached for comment. Senior TDP leader and former finance minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu protested against the eviction notice.

“This is nothing but a witch-hunt of the former chief minister. In fact, the buildings came up during the regime of Jagan’s father Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, who gave all permissions for construction. If they were illegal constructions, why didn’t (Rajasekhara) Reddy take action against them then itself?” he asked.

Rajasekhara Reddy died in a helicopter crash in September 2009.

Ramakrishnudu said there was no proposal for the construction of a capital city when the buildings were constructed in 2008. “There was no APCRDA then. The permission was granted by the gram panchayat,” he said.

YSR Congress spokesperson Vasireddy Padma maintained that the government had taken up a massive exercise to cleanse the system and reform the administration.