KCR Suffering From "Open Land Phobia": Shabbir Ali

Senior Congress leader Mohammed Ali Shabbir criticised Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao for planning to acquire 11 acres of land of the Osmania University for the weaker sections housing project.

Addressing the media at the Congress Legislature Party office on Monday, the leader of the Opposition in the Telangana Council alleged that KCR appeared to be suffering from "open land phobia" - wherever he saw an open land, he would come out with some construction plans.

"In the name of weaker section housing, KCR wants to hand over the OU land to realtors for personal gains," Shabbir Ali said.

He added that the Chief Minister should drop the plans to acquire the 11 acres of land. "We will not allow the government to take even an inch of the OU land. We will launch an agitation if KCR does not mend his ways," he warned.

Shabbir Ali alleged that KCR had been pursuing his "real estate ambitions" ever since he took over as Chief Minister. "He first eyed 627 acres of prime land of the Gurukul Trust. Later, he targeted 57 acres of the Chest Hospital's land at Erragadda. Recently he demanded 60 acres of military land in the name of the building of a new Secretariat," he pointed out.

"The Chief Minister also proposed a new building at NTR Stadium, and now he is eyeing the OU land. He is definitely suffering from an 'open land phobia'," he added.

The Congress leader claimed that the previous Congress Government had constructed 46 lakh houses for poor, including 70,000 units in the Greater Hyderabad limits, during its 10-year regime without creating any hype. However, the TRS government had delayed the completion of about 4-5 lakh houses by not releasing the funds. Further, KCR did not construct a single 2BHK flat, breaking a key election promise.

Congress MLA A Sampath Kumar also spoke. (NSS)