Congress Grabbed Rs 7,000 Cr Govt Land: Harish Rao

BRS Deputy Floor Leader and former minister Harish Rao today alleged that a large-scale illegal acquisition of 373 acres of government land, valued at nearly Rs 7,000 crore, was currently taking place in Nadargul, Ranga Reddy district, with the support of individuals affiliated with the ruling Congress.

Addressing the media at Telangana Bhavan, Rao said that the land was located in Survey No 613 (new Survey No 119) in Nadargul. He accused senior Congress leaders and politically connected companies of attempting to take illegal control of it.

He said that poor farmers were being attacked and prevented from entering the land despite clear High Court rulings declaring it as government property.

The BRS MLA demanded immediate action from the government, and warned it that BRS leaders would visit the site if authorities failed to act by tomorrow morning.

Rao also said that since the Congress came to power, lands belonging to dalits, weaker sections and poor cultivators had been systematically targeted, either under the guise of industrial activity or through outright land grabbing.

He alleged that in this case the protectors themselves had become predators, adding that the scam could not have proceeded without political patronage from the highest levels of the State government.

Rao said that these lands were carefully protected during the entire ten-year BRS government, but after the Congress came to power they were targeted within days.

He specifically referred to women farmers including Kausalya and Mamatha, and said that they had depended on these lands for over 40 years but were now being pressured to vacate with token compensation offers of Rs 5 lakh or Rs 10 lakh. He added that borewells and fencing had been damaged, and that women were being threatened by private musclemen, while the police stood with the powerful instead of the poor.

The BRS MLA lamented that while earlier Congress governments at least claimed to support cultivation by the poor, the present government was using hired men to dispossess them. "This is a clear example of how the Congress government is treating the poor," he said.

He also criticised HYDRAA, asking why the same authority that swiftly demolished poor people's houses on weekends was now remaining silent when a Rs 7,000 crore land grab was taking place in full public view.