Capital Pnel: Plans afoot to woo back KE

Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is understood to be planning to bring back his deputy and Revenue Minister KE Krishnamurthy into the Cabinet sub-committee on land acquisition to soften the Rayalaseema leaders.

Sources said the present five-member committee would be expanded to seven by including Krishnamurthy and a Dalit leader. This will be formally announced in the Cabinet meeting to be held on September 30.

Krishnamurthy is in the eye of a storm after his name was excluded from the sub-committee though he holds the important portfolio of revenue. He was also causing enough trouble for the Chief Minister by disclosing important information on capital development by remaining outside the committee.

In a recent meeting, while avoiding questions on his opting out of the committee, Krishna Murthy said a separate panel of Revenue officials was being formed for land acquisition and other matters related to the capital.

“Rumours of real estate agents from one particular community involving in land acquisition in a big way made the Chief Minister to change his mind and expand the panel. He also decided to bring in a Dalit member into the committee,” said a senior leader of the party.

It was reported in these columns that some big shots in the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), including some businessmen-turned-political leaders had recently bought huge land at Gannavaram, Kanchikacherla, Gottumukkala and Ibrahimpatnam.

The Chief Minister is planning to have the administrative blocks of the government at these four places while having the new capital city on either side of the river Krishna by linking Kanchikacherla with Amaravathi by bridges across the Krishna.