Andhra Pradesh - Anantapur   

Row over ‘sale’ of missionary land

ANANTAPUR: The Communist Party of India (CPI) on Thursday alleged that a portion of the Missamma compound, a Christian missionary property, was illegally demolished by a construction company belonging to the local Congress legislator after claiming that about 7.75 acres land was ‘purchased’ by them.

A delegation of the party led by State secretariat member K. Ramakrishna represented the matter to district Collector N. Sridhar along with the copies of standing orders against transaction of such land without the no objection certification from the Collector.

The Collector assured them of looking into the matter stating that he was not aware of the orders.

The CPI delegation explained that as per the instructions of Legislative Assembly House Committee on illegal occupation of properties of Christian missionaries and educational institutions the Chief Commission of Land Administration had written to the District Collectors on July 28, 2005 on the matter. The Collectors were told to instruct the District Registrar and Sub-Registrars not to allow registration of such properties in favour of third parties without Collector’s NOC.

Accordingly, the then district Collector Y. Anuradha had written to the registration officials not to register the immovable properties of Christian missionaries in favour of third parties without Collector’s NOC.

They further alleged that the construction company had been grossly misleading the public by claiming that they had already purchased the land. However, the fact was that the registration was kept pending by the registration officials either for lack of NOC or for non-payment of duty as per the market value of the land.

The construction company had been claiming that it had purchased 7.75 acres land for a sum of Rs. 1 crore to the general power of attorney-holders of the Church of South India Trust Association by paying about Rs. 9.5 lakh of registration fee. As per the market value of the land, about Rs. 9.26 crore, the registration fee would be about Rs. 78 lakh.

The CPI demanded booking of cheating case against the representatives of the construction company and the GPA holders of CSITA and suspension of the Registration officials concerned for accepting the documents for registration without the Collector’s NOC.

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