RTI query reveals APIIC selling 100 acres of land to Apache Footwear at Re 1 per acre

GUNTUR (AP): The Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation ( APIIC) allegedly sold 100 acres of land at Mambattu village in Potti Sri Ramulu Nellore district, at the rate of Re 1 per acre to Apache Footwear India Pvt Ltd, a Singapore-based footwear company in March 2010, when K Rosaiah was Andhra Pradesh chief minister.

The information was furnished under the Right to Information Act by the APIIC September 5 to the former Guntur District Congress Committee vice president Kanaparthi Srinivas Rao.

Rao, who has a copy of the information furnished to him by the APIIC, alleged that it has evaded disclosure of the market value of the land given to Apache.

The land is part of the 313 acres in Mambattu village which was leased by APIIC in October 2008 to Apache. APIIC later sold the land which it had leased.

He said that according to the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), Apache ought to have provided 15,000 jobs, but only 5732 jobs have been provided.

He alleged that this was in sharp contrast with how the AP state government sold 124 acres of land at a market value of Rs 50,000 per acre in Vankayapadu and Mydavolu villages in Guntur district to the central government controlled Spices Board, to establish a spices park, whose foundation stone was laid in August 2008.

He also alleged that repeated appeals by the Spices Board and Guntur MP Rayapati Sambasiva Rao to provide the land free of cost, or at a nominal price were rejected by the AP state government, expressing his astonishment at APIIC's magnanimity towards Apache.