The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Land deals echo in A.P. House

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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Land deals echo in A.P. House

Special Correspondent

Entire Opposition stages walkout in a rare show of unity

Land was sold at throwaway prices in the name of IT: TRS
Ruling party denies land allotment norms were flouted

HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh Assembly was rocked by allegations and counter-allegations by the Congress and Opposition benches over allotment of large tracts of land to private companies in Hyderabad and elsewhere on Thursday.

At the end of a marathon debate, the entire Opposition, in a rare show of unity, staged a walkout in protest against the rejection of its demand for constituting a House Committee to probe the allotment of land to software companies that have come up in Ranga Reddy district.

The controversy was generated over a question tabled by Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) member T. Harish Rao alleging that the Congress government had shown undue favours to a small group of people by selling precious land at throwaway prices in the name of promoting Information Technology (IT).

Admitting that certain exemptions were indeed granted to the IT industry to attract investments and generate employment, the government denied flouting norms in land allotment in contrast to the “brazen actions” during the Telugu Desam regime. Leader of Opposition N. Chandrababu Naidu (TDP) alleged that the Congress received commissions in sanction of land to 94 Special Economic Zones to whom land, including wet and assigned land, was sold at Rs. one lakh an acre. Even companies such as IT major, Infosys, did not fulfil their promise of employment.

Hasty manner

Finance Minister K. Rosaiah took on Mr. Naidu by recalling the hasty manner in which he got 900 acres of land registered for M/s IMG Bharata while heading a caretaker government in 2004. Intervening in the debate, Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy said IMG Bharata gifted away land at Rs. 40,000 an acre whereas Mr. Naidu’s wife sold an adjoining piece of land two years earlier at Rs. two crore an acre.

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