A senior officer in Andhra Pradesh's Directorate of Town and Country Planning has been appointed to a key position with the state's real estate regulatory authority, a move that has drawn sharp criticism given a string of corruption allegations against her from the previous government's tenure. The officer, identified as Vidyullatha, had faced accusations of irregularities in the handling of transferable development rights bonds and changes to building permit rules that critics say disproportionately benefited certain private interests.
According to reporting independent of this publication, the state's vigilance and enforcement machinery had flagged some of these allegations during the earlier administration, though it remains unclear what formal action, if any, followed those findings. Her elevation to a role at AP RERA, the body responsible for regulating real estate developers and protecting homebuyers, has reopened questions about how the allegations were resolved before the appointment went through.
Opposition leaders within the current ruling coalition have seized on the appointment, arguing it sends the wrong signal about accountability in the state's urban planning bureaucracy at a time when the government has publicly committed to cleaning up irregularities tied to the previous administration. They are calling for the appointment to be reviewed and for a clearer public accounting of the earlier corruption allegations before she takes on regulatory responsibilities over the real estate sector.
The episode highlights a recurring tension in Andhra Pradesh's town-planning apparatus, where the same set of senior officials has often continued to occupy influential posts across changes in government, regardless of unresolved allegations from prior postings.
