Date:04/03/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/03/04/stories/2005030410600300.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Auction issue: MRO suspended

By Our Special Correspondent

TIRUPATI. March 2. In less than a week after the Tirupati Municipal Manager, Ammaiah, was placed under suspension, it was today the turn of the Revenue Officer, Krishnama Naidu, to get the suspension orders in connection with the controversial "shopping complex auction" issue as did the former.

Both the officials were the victims of the raging feud between the Municipal Chairperson, K. Sankar Reddy (TDP) and the local MLA, M. Venkatramana (Congress) for one-upmanship over the municipal affairs.

As to the background of the case, while the Chairman insisted that the auctions for the municipal shopping complex must go ahead as already notified, the MLA reportedly got the notification cancelled at the last minute by pulling strings at Hyderabad on the plea that municipal dispensary should be shifted into the complex. But the Chairman, questioning the wisdom of using the sophisticated shopping complex building for the municipal free dispensary, got the auction completed in the presence of the Office Manager and the Revenue Officer besides others.

What presumably led to the Revenue Officer's suspension today was the reported insistence by the Chairman that the Government should suspend both or punish neither apparently as a principle of natural justice.