Congress demands probe into 'land scam'

The Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) has demanded that Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee probe the alleged involvement of Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu in a "land scandal".

In a faxed representation to Vajpayee, the APCC said that the Andhra Pradesh government had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in 2001 with a Netherlands-based institute "� Sylvan International BV "� to set up a university here and allotted a plot of 125 acres.

After getting the land, the institute admitted about 50 students in various courses by collecting Rs 2.50 lakh each, it said. "However, within two months, the institute closed down leaving students in the lurch. The chief minister wrote a letter to the Union Ministry of HRD in 2003 requesting it to accord status of deemed university to the closed down institute which was subsequently rejected," the letter said.

The APCC demanded probe into the scam to "unearth the truth as the land was sold for a meagre amount to accommodate Naidu's close business associates, who were in the real estate business", the members alleged.