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CPI(M) opposes leasing out of municipal parks

By Our Staff Reporter

Cuddapah Dec. 18. The CPI(M) leaders on Thursday opposed the leasing of municipal parks in Cuddapah town to private parties at paltry amounts on a resolution adopted by the Cuddapah municipal council and demanded cancellation of the leases.

Addressing a press conference, the party's Cuddapah divisional committee convener, K. Anjaneyulu, asserted that some philanthropists and a former municipal chairman donated lands for parks and cultural centres nearly half a century ago and the lands were presently worth over Rs.26 crores now. He flayed the municipal council for handing them over to private parties on lease. He demanded cancellation of the leases and steps to develop the parks with municipal funds.

The Cooperative Employees' Society had donated three acres for Nehru Park in 1962, a former civic chief, Palem Muddukrishnama Naidu, had donated the Balaji theatre land for use for cultural programmes and the Gandhi park had one acre of land in the heart of Cuddapah town, Mr. Anjaneyulu said. Civic councillors and the former MLA, S.A. Khaleel Basha, colluded and gave them on lease to influential persons, he alleged. Some land in Nehru and Gandhi parks were given on a monthly lease amount of Rs.5,000 for a period of five years, the CPI(M) leader complained. The former Balaji theatre premises was converted as a municipal shopping complex by the previous council, and the present council gave it on lease out to a corporate college of Nellore, he decried. When Muddukrishnama Naidu's heir, Palem Sridhar, filed a writ petition in court questioning the move to utilise the land donated by them for other than cultural purposes, the municipal council gave an undertaking that it would not be converted into a commercial complex, but subsequently did so, he alleged. He urged the Collector, Jayesh Ranjan, to order cancellation of the leases and resuming of the land, lest an agitation would be launched soon.

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