Visakhapatnam: Rajya Sabha member V. Vijay Sai Reddy, who is also the general secretary of the YSR Congress, alleged that most TD leaders were involved in the Vizag land scams and said only a CBI probe into the matter can reveal the truth. The leader addressed a media conference here on Wednesday, ahead of the YSRC-organised maha dharna on land scams.
Representatives of the party said the maha dharna would be conducted at the Gandhi statue and it would be led by YSRC president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. They expressed hope that other Opposition parties would also participate in the dharna. “In the name of land pooling, efforts are underway to grab more lands in the city. Over 100 acres of land belonging to the Kasi Visweswara Swamy Temple at Padmanabham and farmers in the mandal, which were collected under the land pooling scheme, have been acquired by HRD minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao’s son-in-law. The land scams have dented the city’s ima-ge. The Partnership Meet held in the city paved the way for wrongful settlements. The Special Investigat-ion Team (SIT) appointed by the CM, will uncover nothing. The SIT will have to sit and stand to the tunes of the government,” said Mr Vijay Sai Reddy.
He warned the Telugu Desam that the YSR Congress would come to power in 2019 and then send all the TD leaders who were involved in the scam to jail. He said that district collectors were also under pressure from the government. The collector himself admitted to the tampering of records pertaining to 1 lakh acres of land but later changed the figure to 270 acres, Mr Vijay Sai Reddy said.
The YSRC general-secretary said the Chief Minister had signed MoUs worth over Rs 6 lakh crore during the two partnership summits held in Vizag, but the actual investment that had been realised, to date, was only Rs 100 crore. He pointed out that the lands involved in the scam were worth thousands of crores. “In Visakhapatnam city alone, lands worth Rs 3,000 crore, which belong to the erstwhile Dasapalla Estate, have been grabbed by people belonging to a particular caste,” he said.
