Naidu’s wife donates gold bangles; YSRCP says,'return the land grabbed in insider trading'

Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pushpa Srivani has hit out at TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu’s wife, N Bhuvaneswari, saying 'instead of gold bangles, return the land grabbed in insider trading’. The attack on Naidu's wife comes after she donated her gold bangles for farmers to raise money in their protest against the 3-capital proposal mooted by the current government.

N Bhuvaneswari, who makes rare political appearances, heads Heritage Foods, a dairy company owned by Naidu’s family and has been in the news for allegations of insider trading of land in the capital region. 

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YSRCP hits back

In continuation of hostilities between the two parties, Pushpa Srivani, speaking to the media accused former Andhra CM Naidu of being ‘in fear of exposing his irregularities of insider trading’ and questioned why he could not construct the capital city in his five-year term.

"The family has not come out during the state bifurcation but has come out now in fear and to protect their lands. The Heritage company has purchased 14.22 acres of land at throwaway prices and asked Bhuaneswari to return the lands to the farmers. A total of 14.22 acres with survey Nos. 27, 28, 56, 67, and 62 near Kantheru was purchased in August 2014, a month before the capital city announcement," alleged Pushpa Srivani.

Alleging that Chandrababu and his family were not in favor of developing the coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema region, Srivani said the experts' committee recommendations was to decentralize development, because of which three capital cities were proposed. 

READ | Andhra Pradesh: Amravati farmers continue to protest against idea of three capitals

Farmers’ protest

For over 15 days, several farmer groups in 29 villages in and around the capital region have been protesting against the current government's proposal to shift the state secretariat and CMO to Visakhapatnam and the Andhra Pradesh High Court to Kurnool.

During the TDP government in Andhra Pradesh, close to 25,000 farmers had given their land under a land pooling scheme for the capital city-Amaravati. 

Recently, the YSRCP government, led by Jagan Mohan Reddy had indicated that there could be three state capitals-Amaravati(Legislative) Visakhapatnam(Executive) and Kurnool(Judicial) to ensure decentralised development, sparking off protests by farmers who had donated land. 

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Forego new year celebrations-Naidu to cadre:

Chandra Babu Naidu had appealed to all TDP cadres to forego new year celebrations to show solidarity with the protesting farmers and instead donate the money towards the development of Amravati. 

Naidu had also taken to his official Twitter handle and informed about TDP's decision to stay away from New Year celebrations.

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Naidu’s wife donates gold bangles to Amaravati dev., YSRCP retorts, ‘give back land grabbed in insider trading’