The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Land auction swells VUDA’s kitty

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 31, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Land auction swells VUDA’s kitty

Staff Reporter

Photo:K.R. Deepak

Gold mine: A view of the VUDA’s Rushikonda project in Visakhapatnam. –

VISAKHAPATNAM: The auctions conducted by the Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority for sale of bulk lands, land for setting up schools and a hospital fetched Rs. 236 crores on a single day on Thursday. The VUDA put eight plots belonging to the Government and three of its own plots on auction. Of the eight Government plots, five were sold. Of the three VUDA plots, one site was earmarked for a hospital and the other two for educational institutions at VUDA layouts. Of these, the hospital site and one of the sites meant for a school was sold.

At Madhurawada, a 44.25-acre land was sold. The upset price was fixed at Rs.2 crores an acre and it was finally sold for Rs.2.14 crores. A bit measuring 17.30 acres was sold at Yendada for Rs. 5.78 crores an acre as against the upset price of Rs. 3 crores. At Nerellavalasa, 4.11 acres was auctioned. While the upset price was fixed at Rs.1 crore per acre, it fetched Rs. 1.2 crores.

At Vemulavalasa, 1.68 acres was sold. An acre of land was sold for Rs. 89 lakhs as against the upset price of Rs. 50 lakhs.

Left, TDP protest

Earlier, a discord note was struck with the CPI, the CPI(M) and the Telugu Desam threatening to stall the auction process. Police personnel kept the gates of the VUDA Children’s Theatre, the venue of the auction, closed and tied long ropes across the road to keep agitators at bay.

As CPI and CPI(M) leaders and workers and labourers, who were affected by the auction, starting arriving outside the venue, they were prevented from proceeding further and arrested on the road itself and whisked away in vans.

CPI district secretary J.V. Satyanarayana Murthy CPI(M) leaders B. Ganga Rao, K. Lokanadham were among those who were arrested.

TDP leaders, who arrived much later, sneaked into the premises and raised slogans demanding stalling of the proceedings. TDP leaders B Satyanarayana Murthy, S.A. Rehaman and Zaheer Ahmed were among those arrested.

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