Former Minister and Telangana BJP election coordination committee chairman Eatala Rajender has questioned the government “gloating over the high real estate prices obtained through auction of public lands” and wondered why it was acting like a ‘real estate broker’ in acquiring lands for a pittance from Dalits and others on the other hand, on Tuesday.
“Why is the government forcing farmers and poor Dalits to give up their lands for Pharma City or Ring Road offering ₹20 lakh an acre during land acquisition? These are being handed over to big firms and they later make crores. More than 5,000 acres of assigned land is being usurped,” he told a press conference at the party office.
The BJP leader wanted to know why assigned land beneficiaries were being denied an opportunity to sell, as is being given in neighbouring States and claimed this was assured by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao himself on the Legislative Assembly floor.
The ‘Dharani’ revenue portal is a front and is being used by the ruling party functionaries to take over thousands of acres of land. He wondered how the government could announce ₹27,000 crore farm loan waiver when ₹12,000 crore of the ₹16,000 crore income a month goes for expenditure, debt servicing and welfare schemes.
He charged Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao with having “no respect” for democratic practices, constitutional norms or legislative practices, while, pointing out that this year the Assembly was run for just 14 days — 11 days of budget session and four days of monsoon session — of which one day went for condolences.
“The ruling party had stifled the Opposition voices and bulldozed its way. Our party was denied a room despite having three MLAs. We were not even invited to the Business Advisory Committee meetings. Earlier, during the united Andhra Pradesh single MLAs like Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan and G. Kishan Reddy were given due respect and honour, but not under this regime,” he said.
On top of it, senior ministers K.T. Rama Rao and T. Harish Rao “derided and insulted” the Opposition leaders without showing an iota of dignity or decency to their age or experience, he observed. The BJP leader regretted that during the Assembly sessions the BRS did not find time for discussing the recent floods and subsequent loss of 41 lives and property loss running to hundreds of crores of rupees.
“While KCR goes and hands over compensation to farmers in other States like Punjab, here the tenant farmer does not get a single rupee for any loss. We are demanding ₹10 lakh for the dead, ₹25,000 for loss of homes and ₹50,000 for business losses. “Since we have not been allowed to raise these issues in the Assembly, we will put them in the people’s court. Our party will stand by the affected parties,” he declared.
The BJP leader also demanded that the government give an explanation about the CAG – Comptroller and Auditor General of India’s caustic remarks on how revenue surplus Telangana has become revenue deficit in 2019 and loans are not being utilised for capital expenditure.
