Telugu Desam Party president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu is said to be unperturbed over the reports that the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government might order a thorough probe into the alleged land scam in Amaravati, the new capital of the state.
Naidu, who is presently taking rest at his Jubilee Hills residence in Hyderabad, is meeting his party leaders every day to discuss the developments in Andhra Pradesh.
Some of the leaders are learnt to have raised the topic on the plans of Jagan to order an inquiry into the alleged land transactions in Amaravati.
However, the TDP chief reportedly asked the party leaders not to worry about any such inquiry.
“There is absolutely no scam in the land dealings. The government had not made any undue land allocations to any of the party leaders or industrialists. Everything was done as per the rules,” he told them.
He is learnt to have told them that if the Jagan government wants to cancel the land allotments made to any companies and institutions, there was no harm to the TDP.
“It would only bring a bad name to his government in the long run, as no investors would come forward to take up any project in Amaravati,” he said.
However, with regard to the alleged “insider trading” done by the TDP in land purchases in Amaravati, Naidu said such allegations could not be proved at all in courts of law.
“The government has nothing to do with the private transactions. If any TDP leader purchases land from farmer in anticipation of development of the capital, it is between the buyer and seller in their individual capacities. In what way will the new government fix me in this?” Naidu reportedly asked.
It was true that the land value could have gone up several times over the five years due to development which is a natural phenomenon.
“What is the scam in this? Now, with Jagan coming to power, there are reports that the land values have come down steeply. Naturally, their investments on land have suffered a lot,” a TDP leader quoting Naidu said.