The decision of YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy to shift the administrative capital from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam has no doubt caused a lot of heartburn among the local farmers, who have very small landholdings of one to two acres.
But more than them, big land lords who owned huge chunk of lands and also those who had invested big monies through benami transactions are the most worried lot. For, they can neither recover their investments nor can openly reclaim their lands in Amaravati.
According to sources, the investigating agencies of the state government are presently investigating into such benami transactions of huge extent of lands to find out who these investors were and who their benamis are.
For instance, one such “benami” transaction has come to light during these investigations. It was revealed that three persons, supposedly belonging to Kanchikacherla town in Krishna district on Hyderabad-Vijayawada highway had purchased about 40 acres of land in and around Amaravati capital region and also surrounding areas between June 2014 and December 2014.
In the next three to four years, this piece of land was transferred by sale deeds to some other persons. Among those who procured land from the above three suspected benami property purchasers are former advocate general Dammalapati Srinivas and two others, Nuthalapati Sri Tanuja and Nuthalapati Sri Bhuvana, who are believed to be related to a senior judicial officer.
The investigation agencies are investigating into the background of the three benami property purchases. They are said to be suspecting that these benamis were closely related to the Telugu Desam Party, who was then in power, and got a hint from party president and former chief minister Nara Chandra Babu Naidu about the formation of capital at Amaravati.
