Ex-BJP MLA offers expertise to SIT probing irregularities in Amaravati

By Newsmeter Network  Published on  23 Feb 2020 5:15 PM GMT
Ex-BJP MLA offers expertise to SIT probing irregularities in Amaravati

Visakhapatnam: The former BJP MLA from Vizag North, P. Vishnu Kumar Raju, said he was ready to offer his services to the government to work with the newly-formed SIT to probe into irregularities in the Amaravati capital region.

It may be recalled that the state government had, on Friday, set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by senior police officer K. Raghurama Reddy to investigate the allegations of insider trading in land transactions in Amaravati and other irregularities allegedly committed by the previous TDP government headed by Chandrababu Naidu.

"Police officers cannot deal with tenders, agreements, contracts, and land deals. The team needs experienced people like me to understand the irregularities and analyse them," the former MLA said.

The civil engineer-turned-politician was a well-known contractor who built the cricket stadium at Madhuravada. He said reading tenders, agreements, and other land documents were his daily affairs during his business days. Mr Raju said in the former TDP government he was a member of the public accounts committee which was headed by the present finance minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy. He was also assigned to read the CAG reports and was active in PAC and had prepared the final report that was submitted to the government.

The former MLA was also credited with forcing Mr Naidu to constitute a SIT to probe the land scams in Visakhapatnam that had rocked the TDP before the general elections. It was after his demand for a SIT, that Cabinet minister in the Naidu government, Ch Ayyanna Patrudu, also demanded a special probe into the land scams.

Mr Raju shot into fame after he successfully prevented pooling of land at Mudapaka village under Pendurthy mandal which enabled the government to retain thousands of acres of land and make plans to build 50,000 houses. "The realtors, with the support of political leaders, were about to grab a Rs. 1,200-crore land in Mudapaka," he Raju said.

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