The Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly on Wednesday passed a resolution for a 'comprehensive investigation' on alleged insider trading in the state's Amaravati region, by leaders of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP).
Speaking in Assembly, Home Minister Mekathoti Sucharitha said, "A cabinet sub-committee was constituted on June 26, 2019, to review major policies, projects and key administrative decisions by the government since bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in 2014."
"According to the cabinet sub-committee, even before the formal announcement regarding the location of the capital at Amaravati was made, it appears that large-scale insider trading was done and official secrets were leaked by responsible persons occupying positions of trust and responsibility," said Sucharitha.
The Home Minister said that the sub-committee had identified an extent of 4,070 acres that were bought ahead of the announcement, and added that more land would be identified if a detailed investigation was carried out.
"The House therefore requests the government to conduct an immediate and detailed inquiry by entrusting it to an appropriate agency and inquire into the whole affair and direct the government to initiate effective steps to punish those guilty, as per law, in public interest," the resolution stated.
The resolution was passed after the opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) staged a walkout earlier in the day, to protest the state government's decision to decentralise the capital.
As per the plan by the Jagan Mohan Reddy government, the capital would be decentralised into three cities - a legislative capital in Amaravati, an executive one in Visakhapatnam and a judicial one in Kurnool.
The YSRCP has alleged that the TDP resorted to insider trading in Amaravati, by manipulating the boundaries of the defined 'capital region' to unduly benefit businessmen and politicians who were close to former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
The ruling party alleged boundaries of the Land Pooling Scheme (LPS) area were redesigned in such a way, that the lands of the 'benamis' fell adjacent to the boundary. This would make them exempt from the scheme, but would still allow them to avail the benefits of hiked land prices.
The TDP has meanwhile alleged that the YSRCP picked Visakhapatnam as the executive capital, as its leaders owned lands in the region.
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