Amaravati, A Scam And A Sham

Even as uncertainty prevails over continuance of Amaravati as the capital of Andhra Pradesh, allegations and counter-allegations by the Telugu Desam Party and the YSR Congress party against each other are flying thick and fast.

As TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu held a round-table meeting with various opposition parties and people’s organisations on “People’s Capital – Amaravati” in Vijayawada on Thursday, YSR Congress party led by finance minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy held a counter-meeting to attack Naidu and his grandiose plans on Amaravati.

While Naidu accused YSRC government of burying the capital city which was a self-financing project, Buggana described Amaravati as a sheer real estate venture.

“The entire capital city plan taken up by the previous TDP government was a big scam and a sham, aimed at benefitting only Naidu and his coterie, leaving the farmers and dalits in the lurch,” he said.

Buggana alleged that Naidu government had resorted to numerous irregularities in land pooling, land acquisition and zoning besides using coercion and deceit to cheat the Dalits and farmers while the wealth creation was done only to his coterie and the favoured few. 

“Naidu has shown a dream city simulated by graphics and has planned to build it with a whopping Rs 1.10 lakh crores. During the five-year term, only Rs 5,000 crores was spent of which Rs 2,000 crore came in the form of Amaravati Bonds, Rs 2,000 came as loans from commercial banks and other institutions while the Government has spent just Rs 277 crores,” he pointed out.

Investigation is on to find out how many people have bought land in the peripheries of the capital city before the announcement of the place of the city and the names and details would soon come out, he said adding that Chandrababu has favoured the Singapore companies by doling out heavy sops and paying money at exorbitant rates. 

The capital region farmers and leaders of other social groups, who participated in the round table, said that the TDP has turned the capital city formation into a big scam. 

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