Amaravati: Minister for Endowments Vellampalli Srinivas said that that irregularities related to the Sadavarthi lands auction would be investigated. Responding to questions by the members of the Andhra Pradesh (AP) Assembly during the fourth day of the Budget session on Tuesday, the Minister said that the last government had issued an ordinance only to hoodwink the people of the Panchagram villages coming under the Simhachalam Temple in Visakhapatnam.

He also mentioned that Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy had taken steps to resolve that issue during the first Cabinet meeting itself. The Chief Minister and the State Advocate General have also had a meeting and reviewed the cases pending in the court regarding these lands. He made it clear that the issue will be resolved soon.

Several issues related to irregularities in Sadavarthi lands were brought to the Assembly's attention by the Mangalagiri YSRCP MLA and CRDA Chairman Alla Ramakrishna Reddy. He mentioned that in August 2018, former MLA Kommalapati Sridhar wrote to the then TDP government that Sadavarthi lands should be sold. The TDP government published a small notice in a local paper in Tamil Nadu after which Chandrababu Naidu's benamis from Guntur went and participated in the auction.

While the price of an acre of land was estimated to be Rs 50 lakhs, they bid at a low price of Rs. 22 lakh. When the auction officer in charge of the Sadavarthi lands sale intervened and told that it was too low, they increased it to another mere Rs 5 lakh. This was mentioned in the Minutes of the Auction that day. An employee of the Endowments department Bhramaramba who filed an RTI about the value of the land, obtain information that the actual cost of an acre was Rs. 6 crore. The Mangalagiri MLA told the Assembly that he had turned to the court for justice on Sadavarthi lands and filed a case, which was still pending. However, the then TDP minister Nara Lokesh threatened to carry out IT raids on him,which is why now the Vigilance department should carry out enquiries over these land dealings, Ramakrishna Reddy said.

Minister Vellampalli said that the government had many doubts regarding Sadavarthi lands' dealing and that a senior official would be appointed to enquire into the matter.

Leader of the Opposition Chandrababu Naidu mentioned in the Assembly that the Sadavarthi lands did not have title deeds. YSRCP MLA K Parthasarathy was quick to find fault with his statement and questioned that as to how the State government could sell that have no title deeds.

Also Read: Sadavarthi Lands Sold For Rs 60.30 Crore