Dharmana Prasada Rao, former Minister and chairman of the YSRC fact-finding committee on Sadavarti lands, has sought CBI inquiry into the Sadavarti properties.
Addressing a media conference here on Tuesday in the wake of the High Court’s permission for the sale of the land to third party, Mr. Prasada Rao welcomed the court order. “The court order proved that the TDP government had helped its leaders to buy 88 acres of land for only ₹22 crore although the original value was more than ₹100 crore. An inquiry by CBI will certainly bring to fore the scam involved in the process,” he said.
“YSR Congress president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has suspected the involvement of influential persons in it. That’s why he appointed the committee which toured Guntur and Chennai to find out the truth. Now the court order vindicated our stand,” Mr. Prasada Rao pointed out.
According to him, the family of Raja Vasireddy Mahalakshmamma donated 473 acres of land located near Chennai to Amareswara Swamy Devasthanam of Guntur in 1849. Later, the devasthanam allotted it to the Sadavarti Choultry to take up charitable activities. Owing to lack of proper control, the lands were occupied and only 88 acres remained with the choutry. With the booming industrial activity, the land value had gone up in and around Chennai where each acre costs more than ₹10 crore. So, the value should be more than ₹800 crore.
The YSRC leader alleged that the State government allotted the lands to Kapu corporation chairman the Ramanujaya family in an auction. The YSRC strongly objected to the process and its leaders filed a public interest litigation in High Court which in turn allowed third party sale with conditions. The State government challenged that it would allot lands if anybody was willing to pay ₹5 crore extra. Now, the court directed the petitioners to buy lands by paying the extra amount in a couple of weeks. The party leaders reportedly consulted Mr. Prasada Rao over the issue as he had knowledge about it as a chairperson of fact-finding committee. He is expected to meet Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy to finalise the party’s strategy and corner the government.
