The TRS government was put in a spot by the Majlis-Ittehadul-Muslimeen (MIM) on Tuesday when its president Asaduddin Owaisi asked it to keep in abeyance GOs 58 and 59 on land regularisation till the reports of Joint Legislature Committees and S.K. Sinha Task Force are received.
He asked the government to take a ‘holistic view’ of occupation of different types of lands (government, ULC surplus, assigned and Bhoodan) in conjunction with layout and building regularisation schemes. “Regularisation of lands cannot be treated as a standalone scheme since BRS and LRS are also interlinked,” Mr. Owaisi said.
The Hyderabad MP, who called on Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao, here on Tuesday, gave representations on several issues. He said middle classes in possession of government or ULC surplus lands (below 125 sq yd) cannot afford the prohibitive cost of regularisation at the prevailing market rate. The issue required detailed examination. There were also wakf lands spread across Hyderabad and Rangareddy districts and in some cases government claimed the wakf lands to be its own. The Majlis had already cautioned the government about prohibition of sale or alienation of wakf lands.
Property tax
Mr. Owaisi requested the Chief Minister to ask the GHMC authorities not to impose heavy penalties or levy huge property taxes on residential and other properties in the GHMC area. After the elected body’s term ended, the GHMC had arbitrarily raised the target of property tax collection from Rs. 2,000 crore to Rs. 5,000 crore. During the last three years when the Majlis Mayor was in office property tax collection increased from Rs. 604 crore to Rs. 1,023 crore without effecting a hike in tax.
Middle class property owners and small traders could not bear such a huge burden since they were already paying hefty power and water bills. “There will be a negative political fallout for the government and the ruling party,” Mr. Owaisi told the Chief Minister.
Scholarships
Mr. Owaisi urged the Chief Minister to immediately release all arrears of scholarships and fee reimbursement to minority students for the year 2013-14 while inviting applications for 2014-15. The Majlis leader further requested the Chief Minister for immediate release of subsidy to all those who were sanctioned the loan scheme during 2013-14.
