TRS MLA accused of murky land dealings

Hyderabad: The killing of Abdullapurmet tahsildar, Ms K. Vijaya Reddy, has unwittingly led to the coming out of murky land deals of political leaders, especially those belonging to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).

Manchireddy Kishan Reddy, the TRS MLA of Ibrahimpatnam constituency, has been collecting an amount of Rs 30 lakh each from farmers of Bacharam village to settle their dispute and mutate their lands in revenue records, alleged Malreddy Ranga Reddy, a former Congress MLA.

According to the farmers of Bacharam, about 412 acres of their village land that comes under survey numbers 90 to 101 have been in dispute between tenant farmers and landholders, and a fight over its ownership rights has been going on since four decades.

The ruling party MLA, Manchireddy Kishan Reddy, also himself acknowledges this version of villagers, and urged Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to order a probe into land dealings into this stretch of 412 acres. But he counter-alleges that former MLA Malreddy Ranga Reddy and his brother Malreddy Ramreddy are involved in murky deals in this scam. He even alleged that the former Congress MLA was behind the killing of Ms. Vijaya Reddy.

He said that the family members of the former MLA have purchased lands from K. Krishnaiah, the father of K. Suresh, the accused in killing of the Tahasildar, and K Durgaiah, elder brother of Krishnaiah.

Manchireddy Kishan Reddy alleged that these land transactions were done by Malreddy Ranga Reddy in the names of Malreddy Divya and Malreddy Kavya. Manchireddy also alleged Malreddy’s family members registered lands from 11 farmers though they don’t have pattadar passbooks.

Alleging that Malreddy had occupied 14 acres in survey no. 4, Manchireddy claimed that the former MLA, who suffered defeat at his hands thrice, was making wild allegations against him for political reasons.

Malreddy Kishan Reddy, however, admitted that around 60 victims of Bacharam lands had approached him, “seeking his support to resolve the land dispute.”  

He claimed that only then he represented the matter to the joint collector of Ranga Reddy district.

The Congress and other opposition parties, meanwhile, have alleged that Manchireddy, as a ruling party MLA, was behind all land deals in Gourelli and Bacharam villages, and even showed pictures going viral on social media, which showed that Suresh, the accused in Vijaya Reddy’s murder, was also a worker of the ruling TRS.

While the politicians continue their blame game, the entire case has caused severe mental agony to farmers who have been fighting for their rights over lands in Bacharam and Gourelli villages under the Abdullapurmet mandal since decades. And they see no end to the plight in sight.