Hyderabad, March 29: At last, the Assembly took up the debate on land allotment issue on Monday, nine days after it was first raised in the House. Members of the TDP, CPI, CPI (M) and BJP, who got the opportunity to speak on the issue, reiterated their demand for an inquiry into the land deals by setting up a Joint Legislature Committee (JLC) or a House Committee.
Initiating the debate, D. Narendra Kumar (TDP) alleged that Minister for Industries J. Geetha Reddy’s statement tabled in the house last week did not mention the fact that 250 acres of land each to Brahmani Infratech, Indu Infotech, and Star Gauge companies was registered in their names in February 2009 itself. The notices served on the companies in 2010 and 2011 were of no use as the land was already registered in their name by then, he said.
Brahmani was given permission to utilise 100 acres out of the 250 acres allotted to it for real estate purpose, against the conditions in the MoU. Besides, Mantri Developers was inducted into the company in return for transfer of Rs. 400 crore worth property in Bangalore to a company owned by Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, he noted. He was giving the details from Income Tax Department reports.
Seeking review of the policy on land allotment as a whole, M. Sridhara Krishna Reddy (PR) said that most of the SEZs have become real estate companies. He urged the Government to resume the land misused and unused by the allottees. K. Sambasiva Rao (CPI) suggested inclusion of land deals from 1994 in the terms of reference of JLC.
By allotting lands belonging to the poor to private companies, the Government had been creating neo-landlords, J. Ranga Reddy of CPI (M) said.
Some Congress leaders had proved how they could amass huge wealth by doling out land to companies of their interest, G. Kishan Reddy of BJP alleged.
–Agencies