Congress govt sold 88,500 acres of land between 2004-2014: Harish Rao

"When the government led by YSR sold thousands of crores worth lands in and around Hyderabad, Congress leaders, including Bhatti Vikramarka, were mum," the Finance Minister said

Sangareddy: Finance Minister T Harish Rao put the opposition Congress on the mat on Monday, stating that the Congress government in undivided Andhra Pradesh had sold 88,500 acre of land during its tenure between 2004 and 2014.

Hitting back at the two main Opposition parties (including BJP) for opposing the Telangana government’s decision to sell government lands to raise money for implementation of welfare schemes and development projects without any interruption, the Minister accused the Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka of criticising the government for political gains.

Addressing the media after laying the foundation stone for the Sangameshwara Lift Irrigation Project at Lingampally village in Munipally Mandal, Harish Rao pointed out that Vikramarka was part of that government then.

Demolishing the opposition argument, Harish Rao said: “Selling unused lands is not new to Telangana or any other State in India. When the Congress government headed by then Chief Minister YS Rajashekar Reddy sold thousands of crores worth lands in and around Hyderabad, the Congress leaders including Vikramarka stayed mum.”

He also pointed out that the TRS Legislature Party then had strongly opposed the move since the Congress government spent the amount raised by selling lands in Telangana in Andhra region.

While the Centre was encouraging disinvestment of non-profitable industries through incentives to State governments, the BJP was blindly opposing the Telangana government’s move to sell lands just for political gain, he said. Exposing their double standards, Harish Rao said that all other State governments ruled by both the BJP and Congress were selling lands to raise money.

“Congress and BJP-led governments at the Centre from PV Narasimha Rao to Narendra Modi encouraged disinvestment of non-profitable industries and assets of the government. The present BJP government headed by Narendra Modi had written a letter to States asking them to disinvest non-profitable properties by offering upto Rs 1,000 incentive to the States,” he said, adding that he will release the letter to the media soon.

The Minister further said the Centre was going in for disinvestment in various PSUs besides selling lands of BHEL, ODF, IDPF and sacking the employees of BHEL.

Stating that both the opposition parties were waiting for political opportunities, Harish Rao alleged that they were waiting to see the Telangana government fail in implementing the welfare schemes such as Rythu Bandhu, Kalyana Lakshmi, Aasara pensions, free power supply, among other. “It is towards this purpose that they are opposing sale of government lands,” he said, adding that people of Telangana were aware of the kind of role the Opposition parties were playing.

“The Telangana government could not generate enough revenue in the past one year due to Covid-19. Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, however, wanted to conitnue with all the welfare schemes without any interruption,” he said, and observed that farmers would get Rs 5,000 per acre under Rythu Bandhu deposited in their bank accounts from Tuesday onwards.

The Minister said the government was paying Rs 900 crore per month toward the free round the clock electricity supply to the farm sector. He said the government will complete Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS) and other development works without any delay since the objective was to provide irrigation water to 1.25 crore acres in Telangana in the next few years.

Protem Chairman of State Legislative Council. V Bhupal Reddy, Zilla Parishad Chairperson P Manjusri, MPs Kotha Prabhakar Reddy and BB Patil, MLAs Gudem Mahipal Reddy, Chanti Kranthi Kiran, K Manik Rao and others were present.

Also read:

Bhatti Vikramarka opposes Telangana’s move to auction govt lands

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