Alliance govt to focus on unearthing assigned lands scam

Visakhapatnam: The alliance government is laying its focus on the alleged assigned lands scam in Visakhapatnam.

It is alleged that about Rs2,000 crore worth of assigned lands in North Andhra have changed hands ownership during the YSRCP government.

Along with former chief secretary to Andhra Pradesh KS Jawahar Reddy, it is reported that some of the YSRCP leaders were also involved in the scam.

Jawahar Reddy looted the assigned lands of SCs in North Andhra and registered them in his benamis’ name, pointed out alliance leaders. The alliance leaders reported that the former CS and YSRCP leaders conveniently utilised GO 596 issued by the AP government.

Even before the GO was issued by the previous government, a number of agreements were made with those belonging to the weaker sections by getting lands from them forcibly at lowest prices.

Realising that the GO is likely to be released, a section of the YSRCP leaders convinced farmers to sell them assigned lands at a nominal price.

Despite many grievances submitted to the district administration during the YSRCP government, no investigation was launched against the assigned lands scam.

Meanwhile, representatives of Visakha Dalita SanghalaIkhya Vedika demanded that assigned lands should be sold to the SCs alone and amendments should be made in the GO No:596.

The vedika’s Andhra Pradesh state council convener Boosi Venkata Rao pointed out that the YSRCP government looted the assigned lands in the past five years. Further, he opined that such large-scale scam could only be prevented by bringing amendments to the GO No: 596.

When district collector MN Harendhira Prasad was asked whether he received any complaints from farmers regarding lands that were taken away from them forcibly, the collector responded stating, “So far, we have not received any such complaints either visiting the office or during the public grievance redressal system platforms. In case we get any complaints in future, action would be initiated against them legally.”

With the government being changed in Andhra Pradesh, there is a possibility to unearth the alleged assigned lands scam by launching a detailed probe into it at the earliest.