Vijayawada: Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) sleuths have identified a series of irregularities as they continue searches at the Town Planning offices of 12 municipal corporations and zonal offices across the state on the second day on Wednesday.
Apart from finding unaccounted cash of ₹2.97 lakh in the possession of Town Planning employees, they also found cash of ₹56,620 with three private persons at Kadapa Municipal Corporation office.
During their state-wide verification of records, ACB authorities have found several anomalies. For example, Tirupati Municipal Corporation and zonal office in Visakhapatnam allowed construction of buildings on government lands, despite their inclusion in the prohibited list under section 22 (1) (b). At several places falling under the jurisdiction of Visakhapatnam Zonal Officer, hospitals have been constructed despite permissions being granted only for residential buildings.
At a location in Visakhapatnam, though permission had been obtained individually for four separate buildings, Town Planning authorities allowed construction of a single combined building, which even encroached upon the area’s water canal.
In Tirupati Municipal Corporation, authorities did not issue notices to buildings that did not ensure set back from the road as required. In cases where notices had been issued for deviations, no further action had been taken.
Several municipal corporations have kept nearly 80 building applications pending, while allowing deviations.
With regard to the Building Penalisation Scheme (BPS), nearly 22,000 applications had been received. Of these, 16,000 applications have remained pending without taking any action. For Land Regularisation Scheme (LRS), there are nearly 15,500 applications. Approximately 8,500 of them have not been acted upon.
In Guntur Municipal Corporation, 13 applications pertaining to non-levy / short levy of impact fee amounting to ₹2,28,33,720 have been noticed. Such cases have been noticed in other civic bodies too.
In several offices, building approvals had not been given by authorities within the stipulated time, resulting in deemed approvals. Concerned authorities failed to take any follow-up action in these cases.
In Vijayawada city, cases of 4,700 encroachments on the Krishna River, Krishna Canal, Bandar Canal, Eluru Canal and other canals have been noticed. But Town Planning authorities have taken no action.
ACB authorities have noticed kickbacks to Town Planning staff through digital payment platforms like PhonePe and Google Pay.
Authorities said their state-wide investigations against errant officials and employees are continuing.
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