NEW DELHI/VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh government is unlikely to budge even an inch from its decision to probe alleged irregularities committed by the Chandrababu Naidu regime in the execution of the Amaravati greenfield capital city project — notwithstanding legal hurdles in the high court, delays in the Supreme Court and stiff opposition from the TDP.
It is learnt that the government’s standing counsel in New Delhi has written a letter to the Secretary-General of the Supreme Court, drawing his attention to the delay in listing the special leave petition filed on September 22 against the high court stay on Government Orders pertaining to the constitution of a Cabinet Sub-Committee and a special investigation team (SIT) to review decisions taken by the previous TDP regime and probe the alleged Amaravati land scam respectively.
In the missive, he explained that all defects in the plea were rectified in a week but it was yet to be numbered despite repeated follow ups. “The matter is of significant importance to the State as it relates to investigation into the conduct of high-ranking officials,” he said and requested the Secretary General’s intervention.
The SLP in question was filed consequent to the High Court’s stay order issued on September 16 on a writ petition filed by TDP leader Varla Ramaiah. The High Court order had dismayed the government for it ruled that “If previous government’s decisions were to be reviewed, the present dispensation ought to have legislative approval. A government on its own cannot do so and no law has conferred such powers on the State government.”
Besides this, the State government has filed another SLP on September 21 in the Apex Court against another High Court order that gagged the media from reporting on an FIR filed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau against Dammalapati Srinivas, former Advocate General, and 12 others including the family members of a Supreme Court judge, in the Amaravati land scam. The high court had also stayed further probe in the matter.
In his meetings with Union Home Minister Amit Shah on September 22 and 23, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is understood to have brought up his demand for a CBI probe into the Amaravati land scam. It is pertinent to note here that the Jagan government had sought a CBI probe into the scam on March 23 this year. But there has been no response from the Centre yet. At his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, the Chief Minister followed it up along with several other issues. He reportedly briefed Modi on the evidence gathered so far.Interestingly, the SLP related to the Cabinet Sub-Committee and SIT was numbered in the Supreme Court Tuesday night and is expected to come up before an appropriate bench in the next few days.
‘Not joining NDA’
As for speculation over Jagan’s possible induction into the NDA, sources told TNIE it was baseless. Neither side, YSRC and the BJP, appears interested in such a proposition since the saffron party is currently focused solely on emerging as a viable opposition in Andhra in the wake of the disastrous performance of the TDP and the political space left open as a result of the same