Chandrababu releases whitepaper on natural resources; says 'land worth Rs 35,000 Cr illegally occupied'

Amaravati: Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu today accused the previous YSRCP government of looting the natural resources of the state.

Releasing a white paper at the state secretariat on the exploitation of natural resources by the previous government, the Chief Minister said that lands, mines, and red sanders were exploited using official terrorism.

"According to the statistics available till now, 1.75 lakh acres of land worth a whopping Rs 35,000 crore was illegally occupied," Chandrababu Naidu said and made it clear that severe action will be taken against all those who indulged in such illegal activities like plundering the natural resources, looting people and the government properties.

Pointing out that Rs 653 crore was wasted in the name of issuing fresh passbooks after the land re-survey, the Chief Minister announced that the resurvey taken up by the previous government would be withdrawn.

Regretting that the red sanders stocks were completely looted bringing down the vigilance and forest staff strength, the Chief Minister said that quarries were illegally grabbed threatening the owners.

Calling upon the people, particularly the affected, to lodge complaints on land grabbing and other atrocious activities of the previous government, Chandrababu Naidu said a toll-free number is being provided to all those who file any such complaints.

Forest portfolio was allotted to the same minister in the previous government who was holding the Mining wing too only to rob the State at will.

Chandrababu Naidu said that land scams have taken place on a massive scale in the previous government. He said the looting is more than the information presently available with the government. These financial terrorists had chosen an innovative system of exploitation while the plundering of natural resources in Visakhapatnam, Ongole, Chittoor, and Tirupati is a case study, he felt.

The land allocated by him earlier to Ramanaidu Studios in the port city of Visakhapatnam was illegally reclassified as residential property only to grab a share in that land, the Chief Minister said, adding that this case is currently pending before the Supreme Court. The former MP of Visakhapatnam, Mr MVV Satyanarayana, made every attempt to illegally occupy the 12.51 acres of land allotted to an old age home while Sarada Peetham was allocated land at merely Rs 1 lakh per acre, he pointed out.

Listing out other such illegal occupation of lands in several places, Chandrababu Naidu regretted that lands worth hundreds of crores of rupees in Ongole and Tirupati too were grabbed. The Chief Minister provided even minute details about such lands which were illegally occupied in these cities.

He regretted that 8,086 acres of land which was meant for distribution to the landless was grabbed by those who are not eligible for land allotment at all. The Chief Minister said 5,796 acres in Kadapa district, 1,145 acres in Kurnool, 3,471 acres in Annamayya district, and 318 acres in Nandyal district were allocated to their people, which all together is worth over Rs 1,300 cr. Assigned lands are no exception, he said, and added that such lands were commuted into freehold properties by threatening the officials. "Certainly such people, who purchased these lands, will have to go to jail," he felt.

Naidu made it clear that all such lands that were grabbed by the YSRCP leaders would be handed over back to the affected original owners. The Land Titling Act was brought in claiming that it is part of the NITI Ayog guidelines which is not at all implemented in any part of the country, Chandrababu said. "This is the reason why we have repealed the Act," he added.

The AP Land Grabbing Act, on the lines of the legislation presently in force in Gujarat, will soon be brought in, the Chief Minister said. If this comes into force, those who illegally occupy any land should prove themselves that the land belongs to them, he explained. The Chief Minister said that the less said the better about the sand mafia and the State had suffered a loss of Rs 9,750 cr due to less revenue in minerals.