Capital lands: Jagan charges Naidu with abusing power

YSR Congress Party president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has charged Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu with abusing power and leaking information about the location of the new capital to those close to him to enable them to purchase land at a low cost from farmers.

Mr. Jagan who took out his Praja Sankalpa Padayatra in the city on Saturday addressed a public meeting at Chittinagar Centre of Vijayawada West Assembly Constituency.

Addressing an impressive gathering, Mr. Jagan focussed on the omissions and commissions of the State government in the Capital region. He alleged the Chief Minister, who took an oath to safeguard secrets of the government, leaked information to help his supporters.

Mr. Jagan also charged the Chief Minister with ensuring that the lands purchased by people close to him were exempted from land pooling. If by chance some of the lands were included in land pooling, the Chief Minister made sure that they were not lost in zoning or laying of roads. While the lands that belonged to his people were earmarked as fit for real estate, the lands of poor farmers were zoned as agricultural. Farmers who protested against “the victimisation” were branded as “anti-capital” and the standing crop in their fields were either bulldozed or, in a couple of cases torched, he alleged.

The worst to be affected were poor land owners whose assigned and lanka (island) lands were taken away without the payment of proper compensation, he pointed out.

Mr. Jagan said the tall claims of the Chief Minister did not match his track record. The people were told that the Kanakadurga flyover would be completed before Krishna Pushkarams, but it was incomplete to date. He wondered how the people would believe the Chief Minister’s claims that he could build a capital that would rival Singapore or transform the State into a Japan.

Mr. Jagan said that Andhra Pradesh could have built an excellent capital for the “exorbitant amount” paid for temporary accommodation of the Secretariat and Legislative Assembly. The contractors were paid ₹10,000 a square feet for building temporary accommodation, he claimed.

Mr. Jagan said that Mr. Naidu should answer several questions to convince the people that he was now working earnestly to get Special Category Status (SCS) for Andhra Pradesh. The YSRCP leader said there were several occasions on which Mr Naidu could have put pressure on the Centre for SCS, but failed to do so. Now all of a sudden he was trying to push the blame on the Centre, Mr Jagan said.