AP government following norms in guest house attachment

VIJAYAWADA: The YSR Congress has urged former chief minister Chandrababu Naidu to face the probe in the Amaravati ‘quid pro quo’ cases without seeking stay orders through courts.

YSRC MLA and former minister Perni Venkataramaiah alias Nani asked how Chandrababu got a guest house that was not a part of the land pooling system in Amaravati. Naidu and then minister Ponguru Narayana were involved in the ‘quid pro quo’ deal, he said, adding, “The investigation is going on in a just and impartial manner. Action would be taken against those found guilty.”

Nani said, “The (former) Telugu Desam government did not care about the irregularities that happened in Amaravati. After Jagan's government came, Mangalagiri MLA Alla Ramakrishna gave a petition along with evidence about this deal. Base on this, an inquiry was made by the CID.”

“The inquiry revealed that Lingamaneni Ramesh and some other persons benefited. The CID concluded that cash and property had changed hands. The government took action. It has attached the assets of the accused and issued warrants. There is no political revenge,” he asserted.

The MLA recalled that Chandrababu had told the media that he was staying in the guest house as it belonged to the government and that the guest house was given to APCRDA under Land Pooling Scheme. “But there is no evidence of a pooling. Why did Chandrababu stay in that house for free? If the house belongs to Lingamaneni Ramesh, why was Chandrababu staying there? What is their relationship? Or was he paying rent? How did Chandrababu say that it was a non-pooling property?”

The MLA said that there are notes on files with signatures of Chandrababu about the Amaravati land scams. “The government has taken steps according to the law but Chandrababu and his Benamis got a stay but now the stays have been vacated, paving the way for investigations.”

Regarding Pawan Kalyan’s allegations against the Jagan-led government, MLA Nani claimed that the CM stood by the farmers whenever there was any calamity. “But Pawan stepped into Andhra Pradesh to slander such a government and he is doing politics for Chandrababu. Pawan formed a political party for Chandrababu and Pawan used to come on the road once in six months to criticise Jagan.”

Refuting allegations of Pawan that AP was causing losses to his movies, the former minister said, “Films will be successful if the public accepts them. But, Pawan’s movie Bhimla Nayak was a flop as people did not like that.”