TDP Seniors, 800 BPL Card Holders Involved in Amaravati Insider Trading: Andhra Govt Releases​ Video

Amaravati: YSR Congress party on Tuesday released a video containing a list of people who resorted to insider trading 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 for the bifurcated Andhra Pradesh. While the committee was still touring the state to locate the capital, the then Chandrababu Naidu government had on September 4 announced in the Assembly that the capital would be set up near Vijayawada region.

On December 30, the then government had passed the Capital Region Development Authority Act, according to which 25 villages of Tadepalli and Mangalagiri mandals of Guntur district were to fall in the capital region. The government paid no heed to the recommendations of the committee, which said that the region was flood-prone as it was on the banks of Krishna river.

Moreover, the committee had also said that three crops can be grown in the region and the farmers would have to bear great losses due to the capital formation.

However, the YSRCP alleged that between June and December people close to the government resorted to insider trading on benami names and bought plots at nominal cost. Moreover, the CRDA (Capital Region Development Authority) 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 land from the farmers of the region in the name of land pooling.

The Andhra Pradesh 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, the YSRCP said.

An extent of 2279.91 acres of land in Guntur district and 1790 acres in Krishna district was bought in the name of benamis after the division of the state and the declaration of the capital region of Amaravati. Official records go on to prove that 4069.95 acres of land was involved in insider trading during the period.

The chief benefactor among all was Uravakonda TDP MLA Payyavula Kesav of Ananthapur district, who had purchased 15.30 acres on benami names. Then minister Palle Venkata Krishna Kishore Reddy had purchased 7.56 acres and TDP MLA Kommalapapati Sridhar had purchased 68.6 acres.

The other benefactors of the insider trading include the then official TDP spokeman 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.

Then MLA Dhulipala Narendra, municipal minister Ponguru Narayana, Ravela Kishore Babu, Vinukonda former MLA GV Ajneyulu, 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 confidante of Chandrababu Naidu who purchased 53.29 acres.

Similarly, Lingamaneni Ramesh, who is very close to Naidu, was allowed to purchase lands in the name of all his companies. Incidentally, Naidu lives in a house owned by Ramesh on the banks of the Krishna river.

800 white ration card (BPL card) holders and 60 others from Telangana state were also among the persons who had purchased lands before announcement of Amaravati capital region, govt said in the latest video.