Hyderabad: MLA Raghunandan alleges Chinese link to Agriculture Minister Niranjan Reddy

Hyderabad: Dubbaka BJP legislator M Raghunandan Rao on Monday leveled serious allegations against State Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy in an alleged transnational dealing with a Chinese citizen, Mao, and said he is complaining to the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Addressing the media here Rao alleged that Mao had met the minister; Reddy was in touch with him. "The Chinese national reportedly talked to some people in the US". The MLA asked the minister why he had changed his phone number existing for years. That makes him doubt the phone on which the minister had been in touch with Mao. This needs to be probed.

Rao said the minister had selectively responded to his earlier charges of land encroachment related to a survey number, while he had cited other survey numbers.

The MLA said the general practice in case of any difficulty people take general or special power of attorney to get lands registered. But, what was the need to get the lands registered in the name of a person belonging to ST and transfer them in the name of his daughters within six months, Rao asked.

He asked Reddy to spell out the extent of land purchased and the nature of payment made and the bank transactions related to it. Also, he asked the minister to spell out whether any loans have been taken from the ST corporation, or the Horticulture department in his name for the purchase of JCBs and any contract executed in his name. Besides, he also asked the minister to come out with details regarding works taken up for ground levelling and laying pipes with funds from the State Agriculture department for setting up a groundnut research centre. Also, whether the research centre was sanctioned either by the State or the Centre?

Welcoming the minister's announcement to lead a media team to prove his allegations wrong, Rao asked Reddy to provide revenue records relating to survey no. 60, 53, 54 and 59. He said that he was speaking based on records in public domain regarding the encroachment of lands by the minister. He was ready to be corrected if proven wrong. However, he will also be filing a complaint with the IT department to conduct an inquiry against the minister's adopted son belonging to ST community.