Hyderabad: The TRS government is being given a hard time by its ally MIM over its regularisation scheme.
The government’s much touted land regularisation plan in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy district has hit a roadblock with the MIM questioning the rationale in trying to rake up thousands of crores through regularisation of small plots and lands while promising huge tracts of lands for various “cities” for a song.
Sources told this newspaper that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is quite upset with the MIM’s objections and is trying to sort out the issue with the party’s leadership.
Stating that it will not support any “hasty action on regularisation till the reports of the JLC (Joint Legislature Committees) and Task Force are received,” MIM has asked the government to provide details of all government, ceiling surplus, Bhoodan and assigned lands in both Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy district, its occupants and alternate regularisation proposals.
“We think it will be unfair to collect thousands of crores from the poor and middle class families in the name of regularisation of government/ULC surplus lands, while the Telangana government is contemplating allotting thousands of acres of lands to private parties for industries, infrastructure projects, pharma city, film city, science city, sports city, smart city and various high profile projects,” stated MIM Floor leader Mr Akbaruddin Owaisi in a letter to the chief minister.
MIM wants the government to allot/auction various lands for the big projects proposed in private sector in a fair and transparent manner by collecting market rates from these high profile allottees rather than giving away prime government land to them at nominal rates.
Quoting the 2011-12 CAG report on land allotment, it said that in 2006-2011 alone, the state government had alienated/allotted 88,492 acre of lands to 1,027 beneficiaries across AP. The audit found that land allotments for commercial purposes were not made in a fair, consistent and transparent manner so as to serve public interest. According to ULC surplus land data, there are 41,596 encroachments covering 1,17,24,382 square meters of land (2,897 acre) in Hyderabad district while total ULC surplus lands available for regularisation in Ranga Reddy district is 3,452 acre. In contrast, the previous governments in the undivided state had allotted lakhs of acres to industries and private parties.
MIM is also opposed to the setting up of Assembly-level committees comprising MLAs, MLCs, MPs and officials to identify plots, buildings and lands for regularisation since it could earn the wrath of people over payment of regularisation fees or denial of regularisation.
The MIM wants the government to take a holistic view in conjunction with schemes for Building Regularisation Scheme and Layout Regularisation Scheme (LRS).
“While the rich (the industrial houses, entrepreneurs and MNCs) get large parcels of government land at throwaway prices, the poor and middle classes cannot be fleeced in the name of regularisation of their plots /houses. We have urged the government to keep the regularisation plan on hold till we get all the details,” said Mr Syed Amin Jafri, MIM MLC.
The party has also urged the government to set up a high-level panel under a retired High Court judge or a retired IAS officer from the minority community to inquire into the encroachments on wakf lands.
