The YSR Congress party government in Andhra Pradesh headed by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Wednesday dealt a rude shock to popular media house Andhra Jyothy by taking back the land allotted to it in Visakhapatnam.
A decision to this effect was taken by the Andhra Pradesh cabinet at its meeting in Secretariat in Amaravati.
The previous Telugu Desam Party government headed by N Chandrababu Naidu allocated 1.50 acres of prime land to Amoda Publications which publishes Andhra Jyothy Telugu daily and brings out the television channel ABN Andhra Jyothy, at Paradesipalem in Visakhapatnam.
Needless to say, the land allocation was made as a favour to Vemuri Radhakrishna, the promoter of Amoda Publications, who belongs to Naidu’s community and is a hardcore supporter of the TDP.
According to the present market value, the land allotted to Andhra Jyothy costs not less than Rs 40 crore.
“But the previous Naidu government allotted the land to its favourable media house at a nominal rate of Rs 50.5 lakh to serve its political interests. The cabinet found fault with this allotment and decided to withdraw the land allotment,” information and public relations minister Perni Nani said.
The cabinet apparently felt that the land allotted for the media house did not serve the purpose, as no activity pertaining to publication had been taken up till now.
“That is why we cancelled the land allotment. It is obvious that the land was allotted to Andhra Jyothy as a favour for attacking the TDP’s political rivals,” Nani said.
The cabinet decided that the land taken back from the media house would be allotted for construction of weaker section houses, the minister added.