Big scam involved in TDR bonds: Minister Narayana

Municipal and Urban Development Minister Ponguru Narayana has said that a big scam is involved in TDR bonds and told the officials to work according to the rules without bowing to political pressures. The Minister held a review meeting with the officials of the Town Planning Department at Secretariat on Wednesday.
The Minister instructed that the building construction permits should be issued online and made it clear that online permission is mandatory no matter how many floors the building has. Narayana said that when he was minister in the Town Planning Department between 2014-2019, not a single complaint was received, but the situation has worsened in the last five years, he said.
The Minister said that there were huge irregularities in issuing TDR bonds in Visakhapatnam, Tanuku, Guntur and Tirupati. If 29 bonds were issued in Tanuku, all of them were illegal. In issuing bonds, they were supposed to pay the value according to acres. They said that they committed illegalities by fixing the value of land according to square yards. They calculated Rs 22,000 per square yard instead of Rs 4,500 per square yard which means instead of giving 1:200, they gave 1:400. Three officials who were found guilty of irregularities in the issuance of bonds in Tanuku have been suspended.