Why didn’t you challenge land allotment to BRS for 20 years, HC asks ex-MLC

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Wednesday questioned former MLC S. Ramulu Naik on why he did not challenge the allotment of one-acre land to the TRS, now BRS, at Road No. 12, Banjara Hills at a meagre price of Rs 100 per square yard when its market price could be several hundreds of crores of rupees.

Dealing with a public interest litigation, the Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Jukanti Anil Kumar directed the petitioner’s counsel Chikkudu Prabhakar to submit the reasons for a delay in filing the PIL in two weeks.

In his petition, Ramulu Naik, former MLC and a member of the Indian National Congress said that the TRS was issued through GO.No. 955 Revenue (Assn.III) Dept., dated 27-11-2004, which wanted to ensure that the “land allotted to the party office should not be utilised either in full or in part for any residential or commercial purpose or alienated to any person or institution.”

Ramulu Naik, however, avers that the TRS/BRS had been using the premises for commercial purposes through T-News Channel and Telangana Broadcasting Private Limited. He further said that the then TRS government had released crores of rupees to the T News channel towards advertisements viz., in the years 2014 & 2015 an amount of Rs 1,13,12,190.

He further submitted that he had made numerous representations to the Chief Secretary, Principal Secretary, Revenue and the CCLA on November 13, 2020, asking them to seize the land and resume it, but till today, but there was no action taken on the representation.