VISAKHAPATNAM: The temperature in both the ruling TDP and lead Opposition YSR Congress quarters went up on the eve of the latter’s all-party Maha Dharna over the land grab allegations in Vizag on Wednesday, with YSRC MP V Vijaya Sai Reddy and Cabinet Minister Ch Ayyanna Patrudu resorting to levelling allegations and counter-allegations.
Vijaya Sai Reddy, during a media meet, blamed the land grab on Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, IT Minister N Lokesh and other TDP leaders.
“The land mafia is operating with the blessings of the Chief Minister, his son and several TDP leaders and the official and law & order machinery giving them the needed support to grab land belonging to government and innocent people,” he said, adding that around 1 lakh acres of land worth `2 to `3 lakh crore are under illegal occupation in various revenue divisions of the district.
“Whenever the Telugu Desam Party is in power, land scams are a regular affair. Between 2004 and 2009 and again from 2014 to till date, TDP leaders have grabbed vast tracts of government and assigned land,” he alleged, adding that the corrupt TDP leaders and officials have made the Steel City into a ‘stolen city’.
“The two partnership summits the government is boasting of were in fact settlement summits,” he said.
The YSRC leaders alleged that HRD Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao, his son-in-law Prasanth, brother-in-law Parchuri Bhaskar Rao, MLAs Velagapudi Ramakrishna Babu and Bandaru Satyanarayana Murthy along with his son, Peela Govind, Panchakarla Ramesh Babu, Vangalapudi Anitha were directly linked to the land grabbers.
“I am ready to prove what all I said,” he told the media. Answering to a query, he said that former AP Brahmin Welfare Corporation chairman IYR Krishna Rao did no wrong by posting his personnel views on Facebook. “For such a petty matter, his sacking is not correct. If TDP leaders can remember, their followers posted thousands of vulgar posts against our party chief. In Ravindra case, the TDP leaders resorted to a foul play and foisted false cases against him,” he said.
Hours after the media meet convened by Vijaya Sai Reddy, R&B minister Ch Ayyanna Patrudu met the press and fired salvos to the Opposition parties, daring them to prove charges on the land scam.
“Despite being a Cabinet Minister, I was the first who went public over the land scams. It means the government had brought out the scam into open. The land grabbing in Vizag have been there since 2008, during the Congress government and YSR’s tenure. Why were they sleeping till now?,” he asked.
The minister said that the TDP government was bold enough to order a probe and ready to take action against the guilty irrespective of party affiliations, rank and files. “We are ready to punish our own leaders, if they are found guilty. If the Opposition parties have guts, they must prove the involvement of TDP leaders in the scam by announcing names and the survey numbers under grab. Or else, they must keep quiet,” Ayyanna retorted.
The Opposition parties are in no mood to wait till the SIT probe is over and the fact is ferreted out. “Even before the SIT starting the job, all the Opposition parties are making allegations. This shows their impatience and the sole motive of tarnishing the image of the government,” he said.
SIT hearings soon
In the next few days, the SIT will organise hearings either at the collectorate or at the city police commissionerate and all the victims are requested to depose before the SIT with all related proofs, minister Ayyanna said.