₹7,000 crore land scam in Nadergul: BRS

HYDERABAD

Deputy Floor Leader of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in the Assembly, T. Harish Rao, has accused the Congress Government of conspiring a ₹7,000 crore 373-acre prime land scam at Nadergul on the outskirts of the city by some companies belonging to Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy’s family members, which is displacing about 600 farmers.

Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, Mr. Rao said the lands were given to poor farmers by the Congress Government in united Andhra Pradesh. The then Leader of the Opposition N. Chandrababu Naidu fought for their protection in 2007, and the then Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy declared it as government land, and transferred it to the Industrial Infrastructure Corporation.

The APIIC had given some land to Unitech Company later, and in 2015, the State Government lost the case in the Supreme Court, approached by Shivraj Bahadur claiming that the land was given to him by the Nizams as ‘inaam’ (gift), but the land ceiling act prevented him from taking possession. In 2016, Alfa, United and Omega companies had applied for conversion of 50 acres of land each.

Later, the then K. Chandrasekhar Rao Government had banned or not allowed land transactions and it was listed as prohibited land under Section 22A of the Land Ceiling Act. The claimant moved the High Court and lost the case there and in September 2023, he moved the Supreme Court again, which has not lifted the stay on the transaction of the land. The State Government had also filed an affidavit reiterating that it was government land. Even on Sunday, the Bhu Bharati portal shows the land in question as government land, Mr. Harish Rao explained.

He sought to know why the RDO and HYDRAA were silent when the land-grabbers had already destroyed the feeder channels of Lachhamma Kunta on the land, which later feeds its surplus water to Noncheruvu, Marrivani Kunta, Reddy Kunta, Sunnam Kunta and Injavurumasam Cheruvu downstream. They had also levelled 3 out of 4 hillocks on the land for mining of gravel, road metal and others, he alleged.