In a growing trend, the political rivals in Andhra Pradesh are knocking the doors of judiciary to order probe into illegal wealth of each other. A series of petitions are being filed in the High Court by politicians, detailing how their rivals have amassed properties through illegal means and seeking inquiry to ferret out facts.
The state Handlooms and Textiles Minister Dr P Shankar has submitted yet another letter to the court seeking prosecution of former Kadapa MP Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy under anti-corruption act and confiscation of his properties pending a thorough inquiry by CBI. In its lead story, “Eenadu” published the contents of the Minister’s letter which pointed out how Jagan had misused his father late Y S Rajasekhar Reddy’s position and amassed wealth using dubious means.
In his Income Tax returns for 2003-04, Jagan has claimed he owned properties worth Rs 36.53 lakh but the following year his assets rose to Rs 6.64 crore. Since then, he went on a spree of floating new companies and earned huge money using all dirty tricks and violating the laws of the land, the letter alleged. The slush money thus earned was invested in “Sakshi” newspaper and television channel. The letter gave details of the companies that Jagan and his family members floated and those which were benefited by the largesse of the YSR regime.
On the other hand, “Sakshi” came up with a story on Congress MLA K Srinivasulu’s letter to High Court seeking CBI probe into TDP President N Chandrababu Naidu’s illegal properties. He listed 11 major scams during Naidu’s rule and alleged that he had received kickbacks worth thousands of crores from big corporate and doled out favours to them at the cost of poor farmers. “How can a person, who owned just two acres of agricultural land before joining politics, amass wealth running thousands of crores?” the MLA from Railway Koduru asked. “Sakshi” quoted him saying that he would personally meet Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and seek CBI inquiry into all the scandals that had rocked the state during TDP regime.
In its front page story, “Andhra Jyothy” reported that the recently baptized Chiranjeevi could be nominated to Rajya Sabha in place of Nedurumalli Janardhan Reddy who is likely to be sent as Governor. In another interesting story, quoting to official sources, the daily said that the government was mulling over creation of additional districts in the state for effective decentralization of powers. The number of districts could go up from the present 23 to 42 in the interests of better administrative convenience.
A bitter war of words in the NTR family was given prominent coverage in “Sakshi”, "Andhra Jyothy” and “Andhra Bhoomi”. NTR’s elder son-in-law and Congress MLA Daggubati Venkateswara Rao has lashed out at his brother-in-law Chandrababu Naidu, saying he was the “Father of Corruption” in the state.
The dailies quoted him as citing several instances of corrupt practices of Naidu and alleging that the TDP President had sold a Rajya Sabha seat for Rs 20 crores and invested that money in a television channel. Naidu had also taken kickbacks from contractors of Sriram Sagar project and gifted away prime government lands to Raheja Group in return for huge bribes.
In another stinging attack involving corruption, a former Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) leader Narra Jayalakshmi alleged that she gave Rs two crore to Chiranjeevi for securing party ticket Chevella Lok Sabha seat in the 2009 elections but the party had denied her the ticket.
According to reports in “Sakshi”, Andhra Bhoomi” and “Andhra Jyothy”, Jayalakshmi threatened to launch fast-unto-death from February 16 if the money was returned to her by then.
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