Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials in Andhra Pradesh conducted raids at Mandal Revenue Offices across the state on Friday. A total of 20 MROs were raided simultaneously on Friday, including Etcherla, Bheemili, Peddapuram, Chintalapudi, Avanigadda, Mudigubba, Nadendla and Kallur tahsildar offices, according to The Hindu.
Officials reportedly found several irregularities with the maintenance of records and pending petitions. According to ToI, unaccounted cash worth Rs 4 lakh was found during the raids.
The ACB officials reportedly found a huge number of petitions related to various grievances, including MeeSeva applications, left pending for a long period of time, exceeding the time period allowed for disposal of petitions. Several petitions were also reportedly rejected without proper maintenance of records or stating the reasons for rejection.
Officials also allegedly found poorly maintained records, including land registers and various ledgers. Several old land passbooks were also reportedly found retained in the offices instead of issuing them to the owners or beneficiaries. An official told New Indian Express that this could be due to a practice of demanding bribes before issuing the passbooks and other documents.
Apart from cash, several documents and other material were also seized from nearly all the raided offices, Hindu reported. According to New Indian Express, from Krishna district alone, unaccounted cash worth Rs 42,000 was seized, while in Visakhapatnam, the amount seized was Rs 43,000.
The CM had held a review meeting earlier in January, where he said that the ACB’s performance was not meeting expectations. Stating that there must be no corruption starting from Mandal Revenue Offices to Town Planning departments of civic bodies, Jagan gave the department three months’ time to improve their work, and also called for a review meeting within a month.