AP Assembly speaker Thammineni Sitaram said that the padayatra from Amaravati to Arasavilli by some people was proved as a fake one. He said that there were hardly 70 farmers who hail from the Amaravati capital villages in the padayatra while the rest were all from Telangana and some were from the film industry.

Referring to the police checking the identification of the farmers as per the high court direction, the speaker said that the fake people were exposed during the verification process. He recalled that the court had given permission for 600 farmers to participate in the padayatra. The court had also given permission for four vehicles to accompany the farmers.

However, for all these years, there were hundreds of farmers found in the padayatra, while dozens of vehicles were accompanying them, the Speaker said. He further said that some of the participants were also making political statements against the ruling party and in support of the opposition TDP. He also said that some were even throwing challenges to the ruling party leaders and were tapping their thighs in full public view.

The participants also were speaking for TDP and making appeals to the people to vote against the YSR Congress, the Speaker said adding that some of the participants have even made derogatory statements against Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.

He wondered why the participants have not provided their identification cards as directed by the court. This exposed the entire padayatra as fake and political, Sitaram asserted. He said that TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu was running the show with the TDP activists. Some Jana Sena activists too were taking part in the padayatra, he alleged.

He said most of the farmers in the 29 villages have sold their lands even before giving them in the land pooling system to the government. By selling the lands, the farmers have benefited exceptionally, he said and alleged that they were now targeting to get greater price for the plots that they were expecting from the government if Amaravati is developed as the capital.

“Some greedy people want Banjara Hills, Jubilee Hills prices in Amaravati lands. It took several decades for Banjara Hills and Jubilee Hills lands to get the present price. But the real estate buyers in Amaravati want the same price in one decade,” Speaker Thammineni Sitaram said.