Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad   

Decision to auction Govt. land around Hyderabad draws flak

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD Sept. 16. The State Government's decision to put to auction over 100 acres of Government land around Hyderabad to yield a revenue of Rs. 130 crores tomorrow was criticised by S. Sudhakar Reddy, Secretary of the State Council of CPI, here on Monday.

Addressing a press conference, Mr. Reddy said the party would stage a demonstration and stall the auction to take place at the Ranga Reddy District Collectorate. It is regrettable that the Government is weighing everything in terms of revenue with no concern for the shelterless poor and future requirements of the people of the city and surrounding areas, like public utility service offices, schools and hospitals.

He said it is surprising that on one side the Government is buying private land for the beneficiaries of Velugu, the poverty elimination programme and on the other, selling away Government land. On the stamp paper scam, he said the Left parties along with other political parties would launch an agitation on the "biggest ever scandal in the State.'' The agitation programme would be finalised at a meeting of the Left parties late in the evening. He reiterated the party's demand for ordering an enquiry by a Supreme Court judge.

He said the State Government cannot escape from the responsibility, as every paper would have to come from the Inspector General of Stamps. It had simply slept over it, the first case having been detected in 1999. Even in the subsequent year 2000-01, it had ignored the sharp fall in revenue from the sale of stamp paper.

Mr. Reddy demanded an all-party meeting to resolve the differences that had cropped among the people of three regions over release of water from Nagarjunasagar and Srisailam projects. The Opposition is not politicising the issue as alleged by the Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu. "He should not forget that such issues can be resolved through political meetings.''

He said the padayatra launched by the party to press the demand for a Rs. 5000 crore development package for Telangana and completion of pending irrigation projects evoked good response. Farmers had a lot of grievances including inadequate power supply and forcible recovery of cooperative crop loans and arrears of electricity charges.

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• Decision to auction Govt. land around Hyderabad draws flak
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