Minister Niranjan Reddy denies BJP's charges on encorachment of govt land

Hyderabad: Agriculture minister Singireddy Niranjan Reddy strongly refuted the allegations of BJP MLA M. Raghunandan Rao that he was encroaching on government land. However, the minister's clarification that his two NRI daughters had purchased these land parcels stirred up another controversy.

In a media statement on Tuesday, the minister said he had declared in his 2014 and 2018 election affidavits, all the land holdings which Raghunandan Rao had mentioned on Tuesday.

"My wife constructed the house in the farmhouse with her own money along with a bank loan," Reddy said.

The minister stated that his two daughters, who were working abroad, had purchased the land from the heirs of Suravaram Prathap Reddy and others.
"Raghunandan claimed that these lands were registered on the names of STs and later transferred on the names of my family members. Everyone in my Wanaparthy constituency knows that Gouda Naik, who was an orphan, was raised by me since his childhood. I funded his entire education. He pursued higher studies. He is like our family member," the minister said.

“He handles all the activities in our home. As per the agreement entered by us with the landowners, the registration has to be done during a certain period. My daughters could not come due to Covid restrictions. For this reason, we had to register a certain extent of land in favour of Gouda Naik and later transfer it on my daughters’ name."

The statement created another controversy as questions were raised how his daughters who were NRIs had purchased agricultural land, which is prohibited.
When contacted, Niranjan Reddy said, "NRIs can purchase agriculture land with RBI permission. He also said that the land was registered in the name of his daughter who stays in Hyderabad and is not an NRI.