TS plans to form House panel to probe land encroachments

Hyderabad, Nov 26: The Telangana government on Wednesday has agreed to constitute a Legislative House Committee to find out the extent of government land that was encroached in the new state's 10 districts. The panel will study whether the land was assigned to various backward sections of society or belonging to wakf, endowments and churches. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao announced in the legislative assembly that 1.90 lakh acres of land that was assigned to dalits, tribals, BCs and other landless poor was encroached. "There is every need to restore this land to the original beneficiaries. We are not concerned about what happened in the past, but henceforth we will not spare anyone. Let the House Committee probe all the lands and submit a report to the Assembly. We will take necessary follow-up action," the chief minister said. He was responding to a discussion on a Call Attention Motion on Wednesday. The Motion refered to 8.39 acres of 'assigned land' that was said to be in the 'illegal possession' of the present president of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee Ponnala Lakshmaiah. Though it was obvious that Telangana government wanted to target Lakshmaiah on the land issue, Chandrasekhar Rao said that they had no 'ill intention' of targeting any particular individual. "In Lakshmaiah's case, the erstwhile government (of Kiran Kumar Reddy) itself issued cancellation orders. Those orders will be implemented anyhow but our main intention is to free all lands belonging to the poor from encroachers. Be it assigned lands, ceiling surplus lands, bhudaan lands or those belonging to wakf, endowments or churches...let the House Committee conduct a detailed probe so that we can restore those lands," the chief minister added. Senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition K Jana Reddy, refering to the land belonging to the PCC president, said the government should set things right if at all there was a violation of the Assigned Lands Act. The land was actually purchased by Lakshmaiah from the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC). "The question of Lakshmaiah holding assigned land does not arise as he purchased the land from the government agency. It was the state government that took back land assigned to Dalits and transferred it to APIIC," Jana Reddy pointed out. Major Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao said the Government Orders issued on the transfer of land were "infructuous" as the Act was supreme. TDP floor leader Errabelli Dayakar Rao, YSR Congress member T Venkateswarlu, TRS MLA Konda Surekha and others wanted constitution of a House Committee to probe land deals. The Chief Minister, at the end of the debate, said the government was ready for it and accordingly, Speaker S Madhusudanachari announced that the House Committee would be constituted with members of all parties. The Terms of Reference for the Committee would also be announced soon, he added.