Former YSRCP Minister Perni Nani, who is known for his sarcastic criticism of his opponents, was accused of buying the lands of the Ranganayakaswamy temple in Machilipatnam, Krishna district at a bargain price. He did not buy the lands directly, but through his followers and then slowly transferred them to his family members.
In 2007, when he was an MLA, he started a drama by saying that he was selling the lands for incense offerings to the Ranganayakaswamy temple. With the help of the then Endowment Department officials, he auctioned the 5.33 acres of temple lands near the Devudi Cheruvu on the bypass road on March 29, 2007 and bought them for a very low price.
The Perni faction had campaigned at that time that anyone who bought the lands of the Ranganayakaswamy temple on the Machilipatnam bypass road would not be able to sell them as there is a high-tension electricity line running through them. With this, no outsiders participated in the auction.
Only Perni’s followers participated in the auction by paying a deposit of Rs. 2 lakhs. The market price of those lands was between Rs. 5,000 and Rs. 8,000 per yard at that time, but they bought them at the lowest price of Rs. 1,300 to Rs. 1,200 per yard. Currently, the price per yard is between Rs. 40,000 and Rs. 50,000.
Perni Nani’s follower, YSRCP leader Meka Veeravenkata Subbarao, bought 1.33 acres in the names of two others, S. Madhusudana Rao, two acres in the names of two others, Lingam Venkataramanamurthy, and two others, buying a total of 5.33 acres of land for Rs. 2 crore 80 lakhs. In 2007, they paid some cash and the remaining amount was paid in 2011, four years later, without any interest, all together on one day.
Out of the thousand yards of land purchased in the name of Lingam Venkataramanamurthy, 500 yards were registered in the names of Perni Nani’s wife Jayasudha and maternal uncle Pattapu Ramachandra Rao, 250 yards each, on December 12, 2022, during the YSRCP government.
Again, in March 2023, the remaining 500 yards were registered in the names of both of them. It is reported that efforts are being made to register the land in the names of the other followers soon.
After purchasing these lands, the high-tension electricity line running through them was moved aside in 2020 under the name of bypass road expansion when Perni Nani was the minister. Although the high-tension electricity line in these private lands had nothing to do with the bypass works, the line was changed with government funds under that name.
