Onus on officials to safeguard public assets, says Somireddy

Sarvepalli MLA and former minister Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy has squarely blamed the officials for the encroachment of public lands alongside roads, tanks, rural pathways and burial grounds.

Speaking after inaugurating several developmental projects, including roads laid at an outlay of ₹43 lakh in Papireddypalem village in Thotapalli Gudur mandal on Tuesday (March 31), he said the onus of safeguarding public assets lay on the shoulders of the official machinery.

When the villagers brought the issue of encroachment of burial ground land to his notice, Mr. Reddy took strong exception to the manner in which such public lands had been grabbed and called it the failure of the local officials concerned.

He directed the revenue officials to immediately take steps to retrieve such lands and initiate stern action against the encroachers.

Recalling that the same village witnessed huge development with ₹2.5 crore sanctioned during the erstwhile TDP regime in 2014-19, he thanked the Shanta Biotech management for agreeing to fund ₹10 lakh towards developing the local burial ground.

Mr. Chandramohan Reddy later offered prayers at Kanakamma temple and the local Sivalayam.