YSRCP demands probe into land scam

Hyderabad, March 2: Demanding the Centre to order an inquiry into the illegal land acquisition in large extent by TDP leaders in the peripheries of the capital region in advance, YSR Congress has said that nearly 25,000 acres of land, including assigned lands, were bought by the coterie at throwaway prices.

‘Chandrababu Naidu and his coterie having prior knowledge have purchased large extent of land around the proposed capital city before the area of capital was officially announced which resulted in breach of privilege and misusing official position. We demand that the Centre should order an inquiry into the those who have registered land before announcing the capital region and after TDP came to come power,’ party senior leader Botsa Satyanarayana told reporters here on Wednesday.

TDP leaders, including state and central ministers have purchased land in the names of their family members or as benami and registered it before the announcement of the state capital and majority of them were assigned lands, he said.

Topping the list was Minister Naryana who purchased 3,129 acres of land followed Union Minister Sujarna Choudhary-700 acres, Chief Minister’s son Nara Lokesh-- 500 acres, state minister P Pulla Rao 196 acres and others who bought the land are close to Chandrababu Naidu.

Ironically, it was Minister Narayana who headed the parallel committee set up by the State Government to identify the land for capital formation overriding the Sivarama Krishna Committee, which was set up by the Centre for the same purpose.

While Sivarama Krishna Committee had experts as members, the Narayana Committee had only entrepreneurs and it was in no way technically equipped.

This was the crux of the scam. The committee had identified land and before announcing it, the coterie has acquired land in the peripheries in large extent which would benefit extensively in real estate trade. This is gross misuse of office and the pattern has been followed earlier too by Chandrababu Naidu when he gave a hype to Hi-Tech city to inflate the land value in the surroundings which was acquired by his coterie much earlier, he said.

Others who acquired land in this venture include State minister Devineni Uma-196 acres, Murali Mohan of Jaya Bheri Constructions and old-time friend of Chief Minister 53 acres, minister Kishore Babu 55 acres among others. The builder of the camp office in which Chandrababu Naidu is staying too has a share in the loot along with a close relative of Nandamuri Balakrishna for whom the alignment of Greenfield has been changed, he said.

All the biggies of TDP had taken care that the land they have acquired, mostly assigned lands, did not fall into the green zone while land of small and medium farmers were included in it, he said.

‘As an effect of the prior knowledge, the TDP coterie has purchased land at throwaway prices which now has increased manifold at the cost of dalits and adivasis who parted with their land for pittance.

The very fact that TDP leaders, from various places, have purchased land in the peripheries shows out the scam of prior knowledge and misuse of office and we demand an inquiry into the purchases as they are on record and available with Sub-registrar’s office,’ he said.

Back to Top