Andhra Pradesh: YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) on Tuesday released a video, "containing a list of those persons who have resorted to insider trading scam during the TDP regime under the Chief Ministership of N Chandrababu Naidu in the Amaravati capital region in 2014."
"On March 28, 2014, Sivaramakrishnan Committee was formed to identify the location for setting up the capital in the state. While the committee was still touring the state to locate the capital, Chandrababu Naidu government had on September 4 announced in the Assembly that the capital would be set up near Vijayawada region," said the YSRCP in a statement.
It stated that on December 30, the then government had passed the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) Act with 25 villages of Tadepalli and Mangalagiri Mandals of Guntur district as the capital region "without heeding the recommendations of the Sivaramakrishnan Committee that the region was flood-prone as it was on the banks of Krishna river."
"Moreover, the committee had also said that three crops could be grown in the region and the farmers would be put to great loss due to the capital formation," the party added in the statement.
However, the YSR Congress Party said that what had taken place between June and December was that the people close to the government had resorted to insider trading on the benami names and bought plots at a nominal cost.
"Moreover, the CRDA was made to change the layouts of the capital region to suit the layouts of the benamis. All this was done after the government had forcibly acquired the land from the farmers of the region in the name of land pooling," it said.
"The AP Assigned Lands Act of 1977 was given a go-by the government for the acquisition of land by the people close to the government. This has led to a major land scam perpetrated by the then government in the name of capital formation. This has led to the farmers of 29 villages in the region losing their lands," added the statement.
The party claimed that an extent of 2279.91 acres of land in Guntur district and 1790 acres of land in Krishna district were bought in the name of benamis after the division of the state and the declaration of the capital region of Amaravati.
"Official records go to prove that 4069.95 acres were involved in the insider trading during the period," it said.
"The chief among the benefactors of insider trading was Uravakonda TDP MLA Payyavula Kesav in of Ananthapur district who had purchased 15.30 acres on benami names. The then minister Palle Venkata Krishna Kishore Reddy had purchased 7.56 acres and TDP MLA Kommalapapati Sridhar had purchased 68.6 acres," the statement alleged.
In its release, the YSRCP said that the "other benefactors of the insider trading include the then official TDP spokesman Lanka Dinakar, TDP leader Kambhampati Ramamohana Rao, former TDP minister Paritala Sunitha, former minister Yanamala Ramakrihnudu's son-in-law Putta MaheshYadav, former speaker Kodela Siva Prasada Rao, former minister Prattipati Pulla Rao."
"Moreover, it was revealed that Gummadi Suresh was a benami for Chandrababu Naidu's son Nara Lokesh in purchasing lands in the region," it said.
The statement further claimed that the then MLA Dhulipala Narendra, municipal minister Ponguru Narayana, Ravela Kishore Babu, Vinukonda former MLA GV Ajneyulu, the then government advisor Vemuri Harikrishna Prasad's brother Vemuri Ravikumar were also benefactors of the shady "land deals."
"Chandrababu Naidu's brother-in-law Nandamuri Balakrishna had purchased 498.3 acres of land in Chanderlapeta. The CRDA rules were also violated in the regrouping of mandals to suit the interests of the ruling party leaders. The same yardstick was applied in the case of Murali Mohan, a close confidente of Chandrababu Naidu who purchased 53.29 acres," the statement said.
"Similarly, Lingamaneni Ramesh, who is very close to Chandrababu Naidu, was allowed to purchase lands in the name of all his companies. Incidentally, Chandrababu Naidu lives in the house of Ramesh on the banks of Krishna," added the statement.
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