The cold-war between formidable HRD Minister Ghanta Srinivasa Rao and BJP legislative party leader P Vishnu Kumar Raju is taking ugly turn as the later demanded a CB-CID inquiry into the land pooling proposed by the Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority (VUDA).

Under this scheme allegedly backed by the minister, 300 farmers of Mudapaka under Pendurthy mandal were forced to sign an agreement with influential people for their assigned lands. However, as internal bickering among TDP leaders makes the minister to be isolated within his own party, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu directed to stall the proceedings.

The BJP MLA threatened that he would also raise the issue in the ensuing budget session of the Assembly. Earlier, 22 farmers approached the Police Commissioner T Yoganand and requested him to initiate an investigation. The alleged influential persons mostly backed by the TDP, took away their original D Pattas and signed blank papers promising them good money after land pooling.

They also threatened them that the government would take away their lands and they would get nothing. They gave Rs 1 lakh advance to each farmer promising to give more later. Around 300 farmers gave away 400 acres of land and each acre costs Rs 1 crore in the open market. The Police Commissioner has immediately ordered a probe and sought a report from Station House Officer of Pendurthy police station.

It was MLA Vishnu Kumar Raju who had unearthed the scheme and raised a storm last year. After he brought the issue to the notice of the Chief Minister and exposed the lacunae in GO No 290 issued on November 14, 2016, a new GO 332 was issued with some changes on December 13 last year.

Raju said it was shameful that hundreds of acres of land had gone into the hands of influential people who had offered peanuts to the land owners though transactions in assigned land are barred under A P Assigned Land (Prohibition and Transfer) Act of 1977. The district has over 1,000 acres of assigned lands in the city limits.