The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : TDP chief demands statement on land deal

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 06, 2006

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

TDP chief demands statement on land deal

Special Correspondent

Charges Government with allotting land earmarked for refugees to private party

HYDERABAD: Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu has asked the State Government to issue a statement on the alienation in favour of a private party 240 acres of prime land near the sites of IT majors at Puppalaguda which is earmarked for rehabilitation of refugees covered under the Indo-Pak Agreement of 1950.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Mr. Naidu alleged that the land costing Rs. 700 crores to Rs. 1,000 crores was sought to be disposed of by the Government to a private party at the behest of close aides of Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, including Advisor (Political Affairs) K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao. It was being done with the connivance of a senior official of the Revenue Department to whom the subject was transferred from Special Chief Secretary V.P. Jauhari three months ago to ensure a smooth transaction.

Poser to Government

Mr. Naidu questioned the Government's claim that it did not have powers to supersede the orders of the Revenue Department and that it preferred a legal solution in the matter. He said it was the same property over which the Telugu Desam Government had suspended the then Chief Commissioner of Land Administration C. Arjun Rao and stayed his orders on a similar transaction. The Government had also initiated an inquiry against Mr. Rao by the Anti-Corruption Bureau.

Mr. Naidu said the private party was falsely shown as meeting the eligibility norms for transfer of the land. If the Government was desperate to sell the property, it could have resorted to an open auction and allotted an alternate site to refugees.

He also said the TDP regime took utmost care to protect all Government lands around the city but the Congress was making a fast buck by selling them off for real estate purposes.

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