Jagan alleges scam, to skip ‘capital’ function

YSRC president and Leader of Opposition YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has made a decision to boycott the foundation stone laying ceremony of the new capital city, Amaravati, to be held on October 22. You are handing over lands as per your wish to foreign Singapore and private companies. “It is a huge real estate scam”, he said adding, “We will not support such scams”, he said. When many dignitaries, including the Prime Minister Narendra Modi is participating in the ceremony, it was unusual of the YSRC chief to stay away from it, he said.Ponnur MLA Dhulipala Narendra ridiculed Mr. Reddy’s letter and said even MLAs and other leaders in the neighbouring Telangana had expressed their willingness to participate in the foundation ceremony.

Stating that the government has ignored the orders of Green Tribunal, the YSRCP chief said he would not be attending the function as people’s sentiments were not respected.

In an open letter to Mr. Naidu, copies of which were released to the media, Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy listed out the reasons for his decision to stay away from the event and accused the authorities of forcibly taking away fertile lands from farmers in the name of land pooling. Police curbs have been imposed in the capital region by invoking Section 30 of the Police Act and Section 144 of the CrPC.

“The foundation you are laying is not for people’s capital”. If people are happy, why these sections are in force?

Jagan charged the State government with splurging Rs 400 crore public money on the foundation stone extravaganza.

Observing that his party is not against construction of capital city, Reddy said he is opposing the event as it has become a “real estate business”.