In a scathing attack against the Telugu Desam Party, which alleged that he had favoured a leading real estate developer after assuming office, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday denied the role of his government in land transactions involving the builder and some other firms, in the Assembly. He said the previous Congress regime had made these land allocations.
The House saw Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao putting up a forceful argument to defend his government and then using the opportunity to corner the TDP, particularly its member A. Revanth Reddy. Mr Rao went to the extent of asking the chair to expel any member who made allegations without substantiating them.
Discussion today also Discussion on this calling attention motion will be taken up on Friday also, as arguments broke out between the treasury and opposition members over whether Mr. Revanth Reddy should apologise to the House. Mr Reddy was accused of making false statements on power utilisation by Telangana State a week ago in the Assembly and with Mr Chandrasekhar Rao taking the lead in demanding an apology, his party members shouted down Mr Reddy, demanding an apology first.
In his statement, the Chief Minister pointed out that it was the Congress government that auctioned 470.33 acres of land at Raidurg to garner Rs. 7,600 crore. However, only 105.54 acres was sold to DLF, My Home promoter J. Rameshwar Rao, Bengaluru-based Puravankara and four other firms. It was learnt later that the plots of DLF and Puravankara were covered by heritage precincts, upon which the former sought alternate lands of same extent and stamp duty exemption. Puravankara, however, demanded return of the money which was still pending.
The issue of DLF dragged on for eight years until former Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy cleared its request just before he resigned as Chief Minister in February last. “The TRS assumed the reins of power in June by which time everything was over,” Mr. Rao said.
As the matter stood thus, Mr. Revanth Reddy levelled false charges against him that he had allotted government land to Mr. Rameshwar Rao as part of the deals. Mr. Rameshwar Rao did not get a single square yard allotted, Mr. Rao added.