Andhranews

The Congress government has chosen to hit back at its political rivals and opponents who have mounted attacks against it on the Outer Ring Road (ORR) land acquisition issue. The State Cabinet has decided to promulgate an ordinance to annul the sale of 850 acres of prime land to IMG Bharata at Gachibowli and Mamidipally at the ridiculously low rate of Rs 50,000 per acre by the then Telugu Desam government and institute a CBI probe into the controversial transaction. With this, Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy is seeking to get even with his bete noire and predecessor N. Chandrababu Babu for raking up ORR land issue and approaching the High Court.

Simultaneously, Dr Reddy has sought to extend the scope of judicial inquiry and CBI probe ordered into ORR land deals and changes in alignment to include land acquisition notifications for Huda townships at Mankhal and Kokapet and for the international airport at Shamshabad and APIIC hardware park at Kancha Imarat during the TD rule. These inquiries are intended to fix the individuals and groups (allegedly TD leaders and their near and dear) who received “undue favours” and made “unlawful gains” through purchase or possession of lands in the immediate vicinity of these projects.

The so-called beneficiaries of land transactions at Shamshabad and other places are said to include Telugu Desam bigwigs like T. Devender Goud and cronies of Mr Chandrababu Naidu. Moreover, Dr Reddy is set to take the battle into the “enemy camp” by deciding to promulgate an ordinance to amend the AP Assigned Lands (Prohibition of Transfers) Act to take back assigned lands given to people belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes if the purpose of assignment is violated.

The ostensible purpose behind this ordinance is to resume 10,000 acres of assigned land in and around Hyderabad where the beneficiaries have violated the condition of assignment. The real intention seems to be to strike back at an influential group which reportedly acquired 132 acres of assigned patta land from beneficiaries. Now, the Congress must take the blame for loading the CBI and judicial inquiries with political overtones