Even as the people of Telangana are agitating for a separate state, valuable resources belonging to the region are being auctioned and mortgaged indiscriminately.
When Telangana region was merged with Andhra, one of the important safeguards that Telangana leaders demanded is a ban on alienation of Telangana lands to people from other regions/states.
But, that demand was deleted from the Gentleman Agreement’s final draft.
Lands worth several thousands of crores in and around Hyderabad were gifted to Seemandhra plutocrats at throwaway prices. Land sales have reached a feverish pitch under the successive governments of Chandra Babu Naidu and YS Rajasekhara Reddy.
Naidu and his coterie grabbed valuable land in and around Hi-Tech city. In YSR’s regime thousands of acres of farm land was grabbed from hapless farmers and sold to industrialists for a profit.
YSR used government agencies like Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC), Andhra Pradesh Housing Board (APHB), Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) to sell government lands.
Photo: Satellite map showing a valuable plot belonging to Deccan Infrastructure Limited (DIL) near Kukatpally.
The fact that YSR’s government floated a government corporation named Deccan Infrastructure and Land Holdings (DIL) for acquiring and selling government lands shows magnitude of mindless plunder that happened during YSR’s regime. DIL now has a ‘land bank’ of about 7000 acres around Hyderabad.
Even after YSR’s death, the Congress government led by Seemandhra Chief Ministers is continuing the loot of Telangana lands.
Last year, HMDA auctioned several plots in Hyderabad. In the auction held in July 2010, bidders paid as much as Rs 22,000 per sq. yard. HMDA is all set to start another round of auction of plots in and around Hyderabad this week.
In the proposed auction, the authority would put up 44 plots in areas like Nallagandla, Miyapur, Ramachandrapuram, Tellapur and Gopanpally, for auction. A 4.7-acre parcel of land in Nandagiri Hills near Jubilee Hills is also being readied for auction.
The organization hopes to generate about Rs 120 crore through auction of these plots. The HMDA had in its budget estimates for 2012-13 proposed to raise about Rs 355 crore through sale of land and plots.
Telangana leadership should put an immediate end to the alienation of valuable Telangana resources. Land is a vital resource that future Telangana needs. We cannot let this valuable wealth, inherited from our forefathers, be sold away like this.
Mission Telangana appeals Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC), Telangana Rashtra Samithi, Bharatiya Janata Party and also peoples organizations working for Telangana cause, to oppose the land sales in Telangana region.
We request the Telangana leadership to issue a clear statement that all land sales done by current and past Seemandhra governments would be declared void as soon as Telangana state is formed.
Future Telangana state and its citizens would suffer severely if we don’t wake up now.
—