Guntur irrigation land worth ₹25 crore draws a vigilance net

The Vigilance and Enforcement Department has launched a probe into the alleged illegal occupation of Irrigation Department land in Guntur valued at about ₹25 crore, according to a report published on 31 August 2026 with a Vijayawada dateline. The allegation places the land’s registration history in the previous YSRCP regime and names former minister Jogi Ramesh among those whose role is under scrutiny, along with associates and, potentially, officials who may have cooperated.

As reported, the land was allegedly registered in the name of a close aide during the earlier government. A private individual was projected as the beneficiary while associates linked to Ramesh allegedly sought control of the parcel. The issue did not begin as a political press conference. Irrigation officials are said to have alerted senior authorities after noticing the problem, which then moved into the vigilance and political-administrative lane.

The State Infrastructure Development Corporation submitted a letter with supporting material to Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. The government ordered an inquiry into the alleged deal, including the role of officials and of Ramesh’s associates. That sequence matters for how the story should be read: an official letter and a government-ordered inquiry sit behind the vigilance action, rather than a freestanding media claim alone.

Jogi Ramesh has dismissed the allegations as baseless and said he is ready to face the inquiry. That denial is part of the public record and should travel with the allegation. Until the inquiry reports, the cutting records what has been ordered and what has been denied, not a concluded finding of guilt.

Land worth about ₹25 crore in an urbanising district is not a minor clerical dispute. Irrigation Department parcels are public assets. When such land is alleged to have moved through private registration routes with political-era associates in the frame, the public interest test is straightforward: who authorised what, who benefited, and whether officials looked away. Those are precisely the questions a vigilance probe and a government inquiry are supposed to answer with documents, not slogans.

The report does not claim that the inquiry has already established criminal liability. It does claim that a ₹25 crore Irrigation Department land trail in Guntur is now under formal examination, that former minister Jogi Ramesh and associates are named in the allegation set, that irrigation officials raised the first alert, and that the Chief Minister’s office received supporting material that triggered an ordered inquiry. Readers should treat Monday’s development as the opening of an accountability process, not its closing argument.

For Andhra Pradesh’s wider politics, the case also illustrates how land, irrigation bureaucracy and former-regime networks continue to surface as post-election accountability themes. The proper journalistic posture is the one the facts support: name the value, name the department, name the alleged political link, record the denial, and wait for the inquiry’s paper trail.