Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is gunning for the Telugu Desam Party and its leader and former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is determined to expose to the public what he alleges as “the colossal corruption” in the State from 2014 to 2019, when the TDP was in power.

He has constituted high-level committees headed by ministers to investigate the corruption charges relating to four areas — the alleged irregularities in the construction of the new capital Amaravati and land allotment, the mega Polavaram irrigation project in West Godavari district, renewable energy power purchase agreements, and other projects, including IT projects, in Visakhapatnam.

A Cabinet sub-committee and a high-level committee have been constituted for investigation into the deals. The Chief Minister has has already made it clear that he will scrap the contracts and go in for reverse tendering, if any evidence of foul play is found.

Describing the new capital Amaravati as nothing but “a fraud perpetrated by the TDP government”, Jagan Mohan Reddy has often accused the former CM of indulging in “a sort of insider trading”, disclosing to those close to him where the new capital is coming up, and buying up huge chunks of land through his proxies to make undue gain.

He further alleged that the former Chief Minister carefully kept the land acquired through his proxies from the core capital area. From the 33,000 acres acquired from farmers, the former CM allegedly allocated lands to companies and individuals close to him.

Rebutting the allegation, senior TDP leader G Buthchiah Chowdhary said the CM “is only indulging in mud-slinging as he himself is involved in no less than 11 serious cases of economic offences and is facing trial. It is indeed ironical that such a man is seeking to project himself as a great crusader against corruption.”

He said the announcement of the new capital coming up in the Amaravati region was made in a most transparent manner and “a unanimous resolution was passed in the State Assembly, which the YSR Congress also supported, designating Amaravati as the new capital. There is no question of the former CM, or anybody else, gaining any undue advantage.”

Chowdhary said that of the 33,000 acres acquired for the capital through land pooling, the bulk of the land would have to be used for roads and other basic infrastructure in the core capital area and developed plots would have to be handed over to farmers who parted with their lands. “Hardly, 8,000 acres or so would be left with the government for allocation to various institutions and organisations to provide the required educational, medical and recreational facilities for the capital. Without allocation of land, no one will come forward to invest in a greenfield capital and the allocation was done in a judicious, transparent manner.”

Polavaram project

Regarding the Polavaram project, former Finance Minister and senior TDP leader Y Ramakrishnudu said, “The contract for the project was awarded by the Congress government before the TDP came to power in 2014 and the TDP government appointed only a few sub-contractors to speed up the work. It is a national project being executed by the State government but monitored by the Centre through the Polavaram Project Authority. The CM is making wild and baseless allegations. We have done nothing wrong.”

He said, “There are electricity regulato0ry agencies which fix the parametres for power tariff and the per-unit purchase cost. We don’t do it arbitrarily. If all the PPAs are reviewed, it will definitely affect the investment in the sector.”

Meanwhile, as the YSR Congress and the TDP are engaged in the war of words, the work on Amaravati, Polavaram and other projects has come to a halt. “ The people of the State have not given the YSR Congress a massive mandate to get even with us, but to secure the special category status and develop it,” saidButchaiah Chowdhary.

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