Andhra Pradesh's ruling party YSRCP has urged the Union government to order an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the alleged land scam in the Amaravati capital region and irregularities in the Andhra Pradesh State FiberNet Limited (APSFL) during the previous Telugu Desam Party (TDP) regime.
The YSRCP, which had already made a request in this regard a couple of months ago, decided to once again raise the issue during the ongoing Parliament session. The YSRCP alleged that the then Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government resorted to insider trading in Amaravati, benefiting Chandrababu Naidu, his family members and those close to them.
The party reiterated that the information about choosing Amaravati as the location for building the new state capital was allegedly leaked by those in power and they purchased land in and around Amaravati at throwaway prices through their aides.
The investigations conducted so far including by a Cabinet Sub-Committee under the state government revealed that before the announcement of Amaravati as the capital, 4,069.94 acres of land was purchased in Krishna and Guntur districts allegedly by those involved in insider trading.
The YSRCP Parliamentary Party has decided to highlight the “nepotism, manipulation, corruption and breaking the oath of secrecy by the people in high office who were privy to information leaking it to their close circles and the insider trading arising out of such malpractice.”
People in the know of cabinet decisions including cabinet ministers, legislators, party associates, and their benamis reaped undue benefits by buying land ahead of the actual announcement, it said.
According to YSRCP leaders, the beneficiaries included Chandrababu Naidu, his son and then cabinet minister Nara Lokesh, then minister Paritala Sunita, Public Accounts Committee chairman and MLA Payyavula Keshav, former MLAs GVS Anjaneyulu, Dhulipalla Narendra, Kambampati Rammohan Rao and several other TDP leaders.
The YSRCP has also alleged that boundaries of the capital area were redrawn to suit a favoured few to keep their lands at an advantageous place.
The Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSRCP also decided to highlight alleged irregularities in the AP State Fiber Net Limited (APSFL). The YSRCP government on July 13 extended consent to the CBI for a probe into APSFL irregularities and intimated the same to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Government of India.
The YSRCP said that the tender was given to a particular company and undue favours were doled out between 2014 and 2019. "There were grave irregularities at the bidding level and undue favour was meted out to Tera Software by giving the maintenance contract at an exorbitant rate to the company," the ruling party said.
The Cabinet Sub-Committee (CSC), headed by Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath had earlier conducted a probe on this issue as well.
"Then Minister for Information Technology, Sri Nara Lokesh played a role in the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for Bharatnet Phase-II at a cost of Rs 907.94 crore, despite it being evident on file that there was a deviation from prescribed technology."