Harish Says All Deals Above Board, Hits Back at CM
On his land near Ranganayakasagar reservoir, Harish Rao said he had declared all his assets in his 2018 and 2023 election affidavits.
Hyderabad:BRS Legislature Party deputy floor leader T. Harish Rao on Wednesday hit back at Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy over his allegations of land grabs by BRS leaders, saying the Chief Minister was “resorting to personal attacks and diversion politics when we raise people’s problems and question the government on the six guarantees.”
Responding to allegations against former chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, Harish Rao, without going into specifics, said that until recently, “They said KCR had 1,000 acres and today, the figure has fallen to 67 acres. KCR doesn’t need to indulge in any acts for even a single yard. The government can do whatever it wants, but people will not believe such charges.”
He added: “The fact is that it is Revanth Reddy and his family who have around 308 acres of land in and around Kondareddypally and Kotra villages. Revanth Reddy must explain how these lands were acquired.”
On his land near Ranganayakasagar reservoir, Harish Rao said he had declared all his assets in his 2018 and 2023 election affidavits. “I also have those details in my income-tax returns including the amount paid for the land,” he said. Responding to the Chief Minister’s allegation that a road was laid to his farmhouse, he said, “The road was laid to replace the one that was submerged by the reservoir because people from Chandlapur village said their old road to Siricilla was gone.”
On charges against his brother, he said his brother had been living and working in the US for more than 30 years with his family. “In 2019, they bought shares in a poultry company – Raj Breeders – owned then by Khurana whom the Chief Minister named. It was a share transfer, and the transaction was paid for by cheque. There was nothing illegal in these transactions,” he said.
While Harish Rao did not say anything specific about allegations against BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao’s land holdings, he added that all allegations against other BRS leaders by the Chief Minister too hold no water.
“Let the government order a probe by a sitting Supreme Court judge into Bhu Bharati and Dharni related issues,” he said. The BRS, he said, demanded the immediate removal of all wrongly included properties from the prohibited list, a white paper on all lands added to or removed from the 22-A list after December 7, 2023, and an explanation of how the extent of prohibited land rose from 3.71 lakh acres to nearly 30 lakh acres.
He also said the BRS demanded an independent inquiry into the assets and land transactions of the Chief Minister and members of his family over the last decade, including the period of the present government.
