Former Minister and Huzurabad MLA Eatala Rajender, who has fallen out the grace of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) supremo and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, has said that he would move legally against the ‘witch-hunting’ unleashed against him by the State government.
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“Eatala Rajender is not a person who could be cowed down by arrests and cases. I am not so small to be unsettled with such tactics as I have tread the path of the movement along with you (KCR) for 19 years. How could I, a brother-like person, become a demon overnight. I will prefer to die but won’t mortgage my self-respect at any cost,” he said in his first reaction after being dropped from the Council of Ministers on Sunday night.
The actions of the Chief Minister did not suit the stature of a leader who, he said, had stated that he embarked upon the struggle for Statehood to Telangana for the self-esteem of the people. “As he (KCR) used to say that he was alone when he took off for the self-respect of Telangana people, I too may be alone now in the struggle for self-respect,” Mr. Rajender said reciting Mr. Rao’s words: “ Sar pe kafan baandh ke nikla akela ...”.
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Stating that he was “a living example” of the Chief Minister’s “enormous extent of vengeance” against him, Mr. Rajender said he would chalk out his future course of action only after consulting his constituents in Huzurabad as it was they who had been his strength for the last 20 years. He also claimed that now Ministers and legislators in the TRS were continuing their journey “sans any self-respect”.
On the allegation of land-grabbing and encroachment in Atchampet and Hakimpet villages of Masaipet mandal in Medak district, Mr. Rajender alleged the administration — Revenue, Vigilance and Revenue Departments — had given a go-by to norms by not even serving notice on him (the company owned by his family that owns the lands in question) and finalising a survey and report in a matter of just 24 hours.
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“In the urgency to submit the report in a hurry, the officials have even forgotten the relationships as the report has mentioned Jamuna, Director of Jamuna Hatcheries, as the wife of Nithin Reddy, another Director of the company, although Nithin was his (Jamuna-Rajender) son. You (KCR) too have son and daughter and don’t you know the relations,” he asked and sought to know whether the link road to Mr. Rao’s farmhouse had not gone through the assignment and private lands.
Mr. Rajender also urged the Chief Minster to look into the issue of lands in Devara Yamjal where 1,400 acres, a part of which (6.2 acres) is also owned by his family, was in dispute stating that they belonged to Endowments Department. The State government announced a probe into the Devara Yamjal lands even as Mr. Rajender was speaking to the media.
