HYDERABAD: Former Union Minister and BJP leader Bandaru Dattatreya challenged the State Government to hold a public debate on alleged irregularities in effecting changes to the original design of the proposed Outer Ring Road project.

In a letter addressed to Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy here on Sunday, he made it clear that officials had altered the ORR in such a way that it would help several VIPs and bigwigs.

`No scientific approach'

"The State Government has decided to help influential people at the cost of the poor farmers who will be worst affected by the ORR project," he said.

The BJP leader pointed out that the State Government had failed to adopt a scientific approach in making changes to the proposed ORR project.

He said that the Government had set up a sub-committee of Ministers to look into issues of compensation for farmers.

However, it did not set up a committee to make changes in the alignment of roads and junctions under the Outer Ring Road project.

The Minister also pointed out that the sub-committee has till date not visited the villages to interact with the farmers who are losing their lands because of the project.

"The sub-committee is just taking suggestions from officials and not interacting with the farmers to crosscheck the ground realities," he said.

Mr. Dattatreya said that international standards suggest that any ring road should be 500 feet in width.

However, after re-alignment, in several areas the width of the ORR had decreased to either 250 feet or 400 feet, he alleged.

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