Supreme Court fiat to Andhra Pradesh on capital land deals
Vijayawada: The SC has issued a notice to the Government of AP on an impleadment petition moved before it, alleging rampant, illegal allotments of government land in Amaravati to individuals with power and influence. Leader of Opposition Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy had brought the issue to the notice of the Speaker in the last Assembly session.
The court has issued a notice to the government and listed the case for August 17. On March 6, during the Assembly session, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy accused the CRDA of joining hands with TD MLCs and MLAs in allotting prime plots to them on seed access roads and roads having exposure to commercial zones.
Mr Jagan stated that TD MLC Payyavula Keshav and MLA Dhulipalla Narendra were given a 12,000 sqft in Kondaramaraju village, which is very near to prime properties. “I am astonished to know that prime plots were given to close associates of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, ministers, TD MLAs and MLCs,” he said showing evidence.
The YSRC chief asked how these leaders and CM’s close associates could get prime plots though the CRDA conducted lottery to allot prime plots. He also cited examples of Speaker Kodela Sivaprasada Rao’s P.A. Gupta Lalitha Kumar, former minister Palle Raghunatha Reddy’s son Palle Venkata Krishna Reddy and Vinukonda MLA Y.V. Anjaneyulu’s daughter G. Lakshmi Saujanya, getting prime plots either near commercial zones or near seed access roads.
He read out details with names of villages, where TD leaders got prime plots under the lottery system, while poor farmers were denied justice. He demanded filing a fraud case against the CRDA for its alleged unlawful acts.
Later, CRDA commissioner Dr. Cherukuri Sreedhar tried to justify the CRDA’s stand by stating that no manipulation took place in plot allotments. He said till SMS reaches the individual, nobody knows as to which plot was allotted to whom.
“All documents were made available during trial run of lottery system, and the same can be examined by anybody at any point of time," he said and added that hence there was no question of manipulation in allotting plots to VIPs and politically influential people.