Chandrababu Naida demands CBI probe into multi-crore land scam in state

Telugu Desam Party president Chandrababu Naidu,today, demanded a CBI inquiry into the alleged multi-crore 'scam' involving a state-run Corporation and Emaar Properties which entered into a deal to develop a township on the outskirts of Hyderabad.

Addressing a press conference in Hyderabad today, Naidu alleged that the state government suffered huge monetary losses as the stake of the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation(APIIC) was diluted in the joint venture with Emaar.

"Former chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy and his close aide and Rajya Sabha member KVP Ramachandra Rao were involved in the deal that caused enormous loss to the state exchequer. As the then finance minister, incumbent chief minister K Rosaiah too should take responsibility for this," Chandrababu said.

He demanded that the state government order a thorough inquiry by the CBI into the Emaar deal as well as other land deals involving APIIC in the last five years.

"We (when in power) encouraged joint ventures by APIIC to promote IT and other sectors in and around Hyderabad and place it on the international map and create large scale employment. But, the Congress government under YS Rajasekhara Reddy distributed land through APIIC to real-estate companies and diluted the government stake causing revenue loss running into several thousand crores," the former chief minister said.

A CBI inquiry is essential to bring out the facts behind the murky deals and expose the bigwigs involved in the scandals, Chandrababu said.