The Telangana government on Wednesday agreed to constitute a Legislative House Committee to identify the extent of land, either assigned to various backward sections of society or belonging to wakf, endowments and churches, that was encroached in the new state's 10 districts.
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao announced in the state Assembly this afternoon that an extent of 1.90 lakh acres of land assigned to Dalits, tribals, backward castes and other landless poor was suspected to be 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," Rao said, responding to a discussion on a Call Attention Motion today.
The Call Attention Motion pertained to 8.39 acres of "assigned land" that was allegedly in the "illegal possession" of current president of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee Ponnala Lakshmaiah.
Though it was obvious that the government wanted to target Lakshmaiah on the land issue, the Chief Minister maintained 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," KCR added.
Leader of Opposition K Jana Reddy, in particular reference 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 in question was purchased by Lakshmaiah from the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation. "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.
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