The Telangana unit of the Congress has decided to write a letter to Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan regarding the growing menace of land grabbing in the state.
Providing an explanation for the party's decision to take up the issue, TPCC chief and MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy said that they would urge the Governor to take steps to punish those implicated in land encroachment cases, alleging that the state's Cabinet ministers, who had "the responsibility to protect government lands", were themselves encroaching upon and usurping the properties.
He also alleged that the leaders of the pink party were pursuing their political careers with the sole objective of earning money through any means possible.
Reddy accused the ruling party's leaders of encroaching upon assigned lands belonging to the marginalised communities of the state, including the Dalits.
He claimed that the KCR government had cheated the Dalits by retracting from its promise of providing three acres of land to every Dalit household in Telangana, and said that, unlike the TRS, the Congress, which was "truly committed to social justice", had given one lakh acres of land to the Dalit and tribal communities of the state during its years in power.
The issue of land grabbing has been a persistent problem in Telangana. However, it has come to the fore again after former Health Minister Etala Rajender was
removed from office after serious charges of usurping government-allotted lands were made against him by some landowners of Medak district.