A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition has been filed in the Telangana High Court seeking a direction to stay the allotment of government land of 11 acres in the prime area of Kokapet coming under Rangareddy district, to the ruling Bharata Rashtra Samithi (BRS) party.
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Forum for Good Governance, a voluntary organisation which moves the HC by way of PIL petitions involving people’s issues, filed this plea which is likely to be heard in a day or two. The FGG, represented by its secretary M. Padmanabha Reddy, requested the HC to instruct the BRS party not to undertake any construction on the land allotted to it under Survey Nos. 239 and 240 of Kokapet village falling under Gandipet mandal till adjudication of the matter.
The petitioner stated that the State government issued circular No. 12425/Land Administration-II, alienating 11 acres of prime land to BRS. This circular required to be set aside and declared arbitrary, according to the petitioner. The FGG mentioned in the plea that the government was ‘handling’ the issue of allotment of land to BRS ‘very secretly’. Relevant orders of the government on the matter were not uploaded onto the government website. Maintaining that it could secure a copy of the memo pertaining to the alienation of land with difficulty, the NGO said it had learnt that the State Council of Ministers approved the same.
As per the said circular, the BRS party approached the government with a proposal to establish an Institute for Excellence and Human Resource Development and sought land. The political party claimed it would train public leaders and activists through the Centre. The FGG contended that there were excellent training centres like the Marri Chenna Reddy Institute of Human Resources Development, the National Institute of Rural Development and the State Institute of Rural Development in Hyderabad. Against this backdrop, the BRS party’s request for allotment of prime land to develop a similar institute was not justified, the petitioner said.
The FGG maintained that while the market value of one acre of the alienated land was around ₹50 crore, the government allotted it to BRS for a price of ₹3.41 crore. This too was not justified, it said.