Andhra ministers seek CBI probe in Emaar project

After facing government action for alleged deficiencies in providing infrastructure for the recently held Commonwealth Games, Dubai-based Emaar is on the radar again.
Some of the ministers in Andhra Pradesh government are seeking a CBI probe into a luxury residential and golf course project the company is developing on the outskirts of Hyderabad.

The infrastructure company has been developing about 530 acres at Gachibowli on the city outskirts into a luxury residential and golf course.

Though initiated in 2002 during N Chandrababu Naidu’s regime, the project has allegedly gone through several changes as political scenarios changed in the state.
There have been allegations that Emaar has taken the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC), the state’s infrastructure nodal agency, for a ride by handing over the project to the joint venture with MGF for further development. It is believed that the JV - Emaar MGF - has also been handling the marketing of the project.

Several Congress leaders apart from the opposition parties had earlier agitated against the deviations in the agreement Emaar originally had with the APIIC. Meanwhile, several residents adjoining the project site too sought an inquiry into the way Emaar bought land from them by paying lesser price.

While the issue remained quiet for sometime now primarily due to the political developments in the state, a demand for a thorough inquiry is coming up again this time again from some of the ministers in the state capital.

“There is an immediate need to order for a CBI inquiry into this. In fact, we want the CBI to probe the Emaar affair since 2002 when the proposal was first approved by the Naidu government,” D L Ravidra Reddy, the state’s medical and health minister, said.

Shankar Rao, the state’s handloom and textile minister, too, is seconding Reddy’s demand.

“This would be one of the serious deviations any company would have with the government. We are definitely going to pursue it,” Rao said.

Though a formal proposal is yet to be approved by the government, it is learnt that an informal proposal has already reached Delhi for instituting a CBI probe into the Emaar affair.

“The demand for Emaar probe also will have political ramifications. Some of those politicians holding office at the APIIC during the days of approving the Emaar proposal are currently in YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s group,” a source tracking the development said.

“There are also several politicians and film personalities holding property in the Emaar project. Most of them are believed to have bought land for Rs5,000 a sq yard while the market rate is at about `50,000. So the CBI probe is the only way the truth can come out,” the  source added.