Nellore, Aug 22: After newspaper reports attacked him of having "grabbed" Dalit land, BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu has surrendered the 4.95 acres of land assigned to him in this district in 1978.

Nellore district collector, in a statement, today said here that Naidu had contacted him on August 17 and expressed his intention to relinquish the land. A newspaper report from Hyderabad last week had claimed that Naidu and his family had got allotted about 45 acres of Patta land meant for distribution to SC and ST people.

Naidu subsequently sent a letter relinquishing the assigned land and requested distribution of it to eligible landless poor of the village, the official said.
The lands have been taken over and will be assigned to eligible persons as per rules in vogue, he said.
Clarifying that 8.56 acres of private Patta land were owned by Naidu's father-in-law Alluru Masthaniah, the collector said no government land was assigned either to Masthaniah or to the BJP leader's brother-in-law bhaskar Naidu.
The Nellore district Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) had yesterday denied any land grabbing by the BJP president or his family members and stated that 4.95 acres of land was given in 1978 to the former union rural development minister as he was landless at that time.
Bureau Report