18 YSRCP offices are unauthorised buildings: Andhra Pradesh authorities

Hyderabad: As the standoff between the ruling TDP and the opposition YSRCP over building party offices in Andhra Pradesh reached a peak, fresh evidence from informed government sources pointed out that at least 18 of YSRCP's party offices were unauthorised buildings.

IT and HRD minister Nara Lokesh had already alleged that the previous YS Jagan government allocated 42 acres of land at a lease price as nominal as Rs 1,000 per acre per annum in 26 districts for building YSRCP offices between 2019 and 2024.

“You (Jagan) have allocated over 42 acres in 26 districts for 33 years for a nominal lease of Rs 1,000 for YSRCP. You are constructing palaces using funds that you have stolen from the public, amounting to Rs 500 crore. Around 4200 poor people can be given cent plots in 42 acres worth more than Rs 600 crores that you alone have acquired for your greed for land. With Rs 500 crore spent on building your luxurious palaces, you can build houses for 25,000 poor people. What is the madness of these palaces? Is there no end to your thirst for money?” said Lokesh in a post on X.

The construction of YSRCP offices on government land across the state had come to the fore after civic authorities demolished an under-construction office building of the YSRCP in Tadepalli last Saturday, alleging that the structure was coming up 'illegally' without necessary approvals and permissions.

Sources in the TDP government told Deccan Herald that around 18 YSRCP party office buildings across Andhra Pradesh were unauthorised structures that had come up without obtaining proper management clearances, approvals, and permissions.

All these 18 structures have come up on land, according to Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), Urban Development Authorities (UDAs), or APIIC.

“Around four buidlings online were approved, but a shortfall was given. Without complying with the shortfall, building construction was completed at four places,” an informed source in the Andhra government told DH.

In Paderu, Amalapuram, and Chittor, the vacant site is in the possession of YSRCP, and construction is yet to begin.

A TDP statement also said that the senior officers in the government are now studying the details of how the YSRCP has grabbed lands in prime localities at all 26 district headquarters, worth hundreds of crores of rupees, in the name of building party offices.

The YSRCP, on the other hand, had also alleged that the then TDP government between 2014 and 2019 had allocated the most valuable government lands worth thousands of crores of rupees to the TDP at a nominal lease price.