Buggana Rajendranath Reddy alleges insider trading by Heritage Foods

Amaravati: In support of his allegations of 'insider trading' in Amaravati by the TDP leaders, finance minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy gave details of some land deals and methodology employed by them.

"Land was acquired in the peripheries of the proposed capital region by people close to TDP leadership months before the announcement of the capital area which is insider trading.

There were many irregularities in land acquisition and awarding contracts to Singapore companies with terms loaded heavily in favour of the foreign companies," he said during the discussion on Amaravati in Assembly on Tuesday.

He said about 4,070 acre land was acquired by TDP leaders in the peripheries which shows that there was a clear case of insider trading. "Prominent among those who purchased land during the period, which is before the announcement of the capital, are Heritage Foods, the company owned by the family members of Chandrababu Naidu," he added.

He alleged that the previous government rescheduled the boundary and ring road adjacent to the lands to benefit its coterie. They also took away the assigned lands using coercion and later on issue a GO to regularise it and take it for land pooling.

After acquisition and land allotment, there was discrimination in pricing between government institutions and people close to the ruling party, he said.

The finance minister said that the previous government tried to showcase Singapore companies as mascot to create real estate boom and sell plots which they called "self financed project". The TDP did not consider the report of Sivaramakrishanan Committee on capital and had set up a parallel committee of entrepreneurs.

Earlier, initiating the debate, Dharmana Prasada Rao said that the need of the hour was decentralised development and not concentrating on one area which was a lesson we had to learn from the Hyderabad experience.

Lauding Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy for his initiatives, he said the government should go forward and see that all regions were developed equally and there should be no heartburn among people of any part of the state.

The previous TDP government had cheated the people and turned the capital city into a real estate venture resorting to insider trading , he alleged.

"The government paid exorbitant fees to consultants and encouraged Singapore companies with very soft terms and used Swiss Challenge though it was considered as a faulty system," he said What the present government has to do is to build a decentralised capital, suggested Prasada Rao.

Some other members suggested multiple capitals in different regions of the state. They also asked the government to take away assigned lands. Some opined that 52,000 acre land was acquired but there was no need for such a large extent of land.

When the Opposition members rushed to the well of the House disrupting the proceedings, Speaker Tammineni Sitaram suspended the TDP members on the motion moved by the Legislative affairs minister Rajendranath Reddy.