Purview of Vizag land scam SIT will be extended, says Vijayasai

Visakhapatnam: The purview of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the land scam in Visakhapatnam district would be enhanced, Rajya Sabha member V Vijayasai Reddy said.

Addressing the media here on Thursday, the YSRCP MP laid emphasis on the need to increase the strength of the SIT. "Similarly, Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy will also be requested to take up suo motu complaints from the public on the scam.

Since the SIT formed in the previous government was in favour of the TDP, its scope will be expanded further, including the rural areas such as Pendurti, Yelamanchali, Anakapalle and Payakaraopeta," the MP said. He wondered why the TDP failed to reveal the details of the SIT report with a sole aim of protecting its own partymen.

Talking about future plans, Vijayasai Reddy stated that all the 13 districts in the state would be accorded equal priority by the Chief Minister for development. "North Andhra, Visakhapatnam in particular, will be developed on a war footing as golden days are ahead for the port city.

The city is growing as a financial and cultural capital of the state and it will witness due development in the days to come under the efficient leadership of Jagan Mohan Reddy," he informed. Many projects, including the metro rail, would take shape in future, he assured.

Further, the MP mentioned that the state will also observe the Andhra Pradesh Formation Day as usual on November 1. Criticising TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu for shelving the celebrations and holding up the traffic at Benz circle in the name of 'Nava Nirmana Deeksha' for a week on June 2 earlier, he said the state would continue celebrating the Formation Day on November 1.

Heckling the TDP for crying foul over sand shortage in the state, the MP said the party changed tunes in the past few months blaming as sand shortage, later as sand mafia and now calling it as burglary.

The MP said the government is very keen on eradicating corruption from the public system and provide good governance to the people of Andhra Pradesh. Dubbing Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan as the adopted son of Chandrababu Naidu, the MP said the actor-politician was sold out to TDP way back in 2014.

He said people lost faith in him and that's the very reason why he unsuccessfully contested from both Gajuwaka and Bhimavaram Assembly constituencies. About capital city, the MP said that a decision would be taken in this regard based on the committee's report.

Further, Vijaya Sai Reddy said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured the state that the Waltair Division would be included in the new railway zone with Visakhapatnam as its headquarters.

Elaborating on the cancellation of the land allotment to LuLu Group, the MP added the project did not make any headway even after the allotment of the site and hence the state cabinet has decided to cancel the same. "Illegal land allotments will suffer a similar fate in future as well," he added.

Tourism minister M Srinivasa Rao said the government would soon tide over the sand crisis. Further, if any YSRCP leader is proved to be involved in illegal transportation of sand, action would be taken against them otherwise he would resign from his post.

He dared the opposition leaders to prove the involvement of the ruling party leaders in illegal sand transportation. If the government failed to initiate action against them if proved, the Minister offered to resign from his post.