Hyderabad: The BJP on Tuesday demanded stringent action against agriculture minister Singireddy Niranjan Reddy for illegally occupying government land, including the land purchased by the state for the Rajolibanda Diversion Scheme (RDS) irrigation project in Jogulamba-Gadwal district.
Dubbak MLA M. Raghunandan Rao told the media that the had minister illegally occupied a portion of the Krishna river bed and built a compound wall on a 165-acre plot, of which 85 acres which Niranjan Reddy had illegally acquired.
Raghunandan said the land grab by Niranjan Reddy smacked of a well-planned criminal act, compounded by a fire on October 25, 2021, in the Manapadu mandal tahsildar office were relevant land records were allegedly destroyed. The fire, the BJP MLA said, was never investigated.
“The minister may have believed that with land records burnt, his misdeeds would never be found. But someone had copies of the Pahanis from that office which make it clear how government land was grabbed,” Raghunandan Rao said. A part of the grabbed government land was 17.35 acres acquired for canal works of the RDS project in Palamur district, but were not used for the project.
Niranjan Reddy, the BJP MLA alleged, had 85 acres of land in addition to the 80 registered under the names of members of his family – first in a benami manner in the name of a tribal family which was then purportedly sold to the minister's family. Some land was registered to a private company, also in an illegal manner, Raghunandan Rao said.
Till the minister obtained various subsidies — between ₹8 crore and ₹9 crore — meant for tribals under various agriculture and horticulture schemes for raising an oil palm plantation, the illegal registration of 85 acres of land in the name of one tribal family was allowed to stay. Once the subsidies were obtained, this land was re-registered to members of the minister’s family, the BJP MLA said.
He said that as part of the illegal encroachment, Niranjan Reddy occupied portion of Krishna river bed, and built a compound wall.
The Chief Minister must release a white paper on all the farm houses built by BRS leaders and his Cabinet colleagues in Telangana since 2014, he added.
