The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Temple land scam: TDP favours all-party meet

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Wednesday, Jun 08, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Temple land scam: TDP favours all-party meet

Special Correspondent

Party leaders demand furnishing of all files

HYDERABAD: The Telugu Desam Party on Tuesday asked the Government to place all files relating to the temple land scam before an all-party meeting in the next 24 hours and see that they are not tampered with.

Addressing a press conference, the TDP leaders, Kodela Sivaprasada Rao, Dandu Sivaramaraju and S. Venugopala Chary, alleged that attempts were being made to tamper with the files as part of a cover-up. Documents seized by the Anti-Corruption Bureau in a raid on the house of the former Endowments Commissioner, I. Venkateswarlu, on Tuesday should be protected, they said.

Fresh accusation

The leaders made a fresh charge that the Chief Minister, Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy's son, Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy, too had bought nine acres of prime land belonging to the Sri Venugopalaswamy temple in Serilingampally Municipality for a paltry Rs. 89 lakhs against the market value of Rs. 20 crores. This was in association with Aditya Builders, they alleged. Files pertaining to this transaction should be presented at the all-party meeting, they said.

They alleged that it was because of the involvement of Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy that the APCC president, K. Keshava Rao, a few Ministers and about 30 MPs and MLAs that the Government was trying to cover up the scandal.

It was not interested in bringing out the truth and hence wants a retired High Court judge to head the inquiry and not the CBI. It was strange that when the Endowments Minister, M. Satyanarayana Rao, himself owned up responsibility and blamed Mr. Keshava Rao, the Chief Minister gave a clean chit to the Minister.

They said the TDP would launch a campaign till the Minister resigns and a CBI inquiry to be monitored by the Supreme Court or the High Court was ordered and all those responsible were brought to book. The party had also decided to constitute a five-member committee to go into all details of the scandal and compile a report.

BJP poser

The Bharatiya Janata Party has sought a probe into the endowments land scandal either by the Central Bureau of Investigation or by a sitting High Court Judge. At a press conference here on Tuesday, former Union Minister and BJP leader Ch. Vidyasagar Rao wondered how raids by the Anti-Corruption Bureau or an enquiry by a former High Court Judge would reveal anything constructive about the deals involving the sale of temple lands in the State.

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