LEADING FROM THE FRONT: Telugu Desam Party legislators led by their president N. Chandrababu Naidu walking out of the Assembly on Thursday. — PHOTO: P.V. Sivakumar

HYDERABAD: Leader of the Opposition N. Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday placed the Government in a tight spot by highlighting several irregularities in acquisition of 500 acres of land in and around Hyderabad for the Outer Ring Road (ORR) and other projects at the expense of poor farmers.

Winding up the debate on the ORR project in the Assembly on Thursday, Mr. Naidu alleged that Congress leaders, MLAs, MPs and State and Central Ministers had acted in concert in the acquisition of the lands in three different instances worth Rs. 7,500 crores. "This is a bigger scandal than Bofors which was a mere Rs. 60 crores."

He said his party was not opposed to the ORR or any other project for the development of Hyderabad and sought immediate steps to protect the 300 acres of evacuees' land at Puppalaguda on the city outskirts. He demanded land-to-land compensation, payment of compensation even for non-patta lands and restoration of the lands acquired through false notifications to farmers.

`Outside' deal

In a spirited speech in which he attacked the Government, Mr. Naidu said records were changed overnight to de-notify the evacuees' land at Puppalaguda ending a 26-year-old ban as part of `an outside' deal.

Amid protests by Revenue Minister D. Prasada Rao and G. Venkata Reddy (Congress), he said this was done without any reference to any order by the Collector. He offered to prove his charge by placing `documentary evidence' in his possession with the Speaker if the Government released relevant files. In order to protect this land, he had even punished a senior IAS officer when he was Chief Minister.

Modus operandi

Mr. Naidu said officials in the Chief Minister's office operated through the APIIC and HUDA to de-notify another huge chunk of land at Gopannapalli which was earmarked for the Financial District and planted stories in newspapers to present a different picture to people.

Mr. Naidu alleged that Congress leaders used chairpersons of HUDA and the APIIC to issue false notifications on land acquisitions in order to encourage distress sale by farmers and buy their lands at cheap rates. They would sell away the land at higher rates by de-notifying them through an order later.

The ORR alignment was also changed umpteen times to save the lands of influential persons, he alleged.

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