BRS Handed Over State Govt’s Land to Others, Says Ponguleti
Calling Chandrasekhar Rao as “Sakuni”, Rama Rao as “Drama Rao” and Harish Rao “Abaddala Rao”
Hyderabad: Revenue minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy on Wednesday turned tables against the Bharat Rashtra Samithi top leadership, which he said had grossly compromised on the state’s interests concerning the controversial Nadurgul lands on the city outskirts.
“Contrary to the successive governments’ stand that the lands belong to state, the BRS government registered Nadurgul lands in favour of private companies in 2014 and even got the lands mutated in their name in 2016,” the minister said at a press conference here.
“It was our government which took steps to protect government interests by filing counter-affidavits in the ongoing court cases, while the previous government deliberately avoided legal fights to help private parties,” he added.
The revenue minister, who was in thick of controversy over the last few days on alleged illegal metal crushing and forced eviction of a family from a parcel of land in Vattinagulapally besides Nadurgul, went all out against the three top leaders of BRS — K. Chandrasekhar Rao, K.T. Rama Rao and T. Harish Rao — who according to him were indulging in mudslinging to protect their own financial interests. “The CID probe ordered by Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy will not only prove my innocence but also uncover the large-scale corruption by the BRS leaders,” he said.
The minister, who was repeatedly prevented by his ministerial colleagues from intervening in the debate during the budget session on the same issues, made his version known in the press conference that he addressed along with ministers Ponnam Prabhakar, D. Seethakka and a couple of MPs and MLAs.
Calling Chandrasekhar Rao as “Sakuni”, Rama Rao as “Drama Rao” and Harish Rao “Abaddala Rao”, the minister said the three leaders were unable to stomach the successful administration of the Congress government were indulging in mudslinging not only against him, but also others, including Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy.
Ponguleti further said that the BRS leaders coerced a “mega” infrastructure company in recent days into striking a deal after publishing stories in Chandrasekhar Rao family-owned newspapers. “Once Harish was also assured of his share by the company, he diverted the issue by dragging my family name,” said Srinivas Reddy.
Over the Vattinagulapally land issue, the minister maintained that there was a property dispute among members of one Shah family. BRS leaders have converted the family dispute into a political issue to protect the interests of their pet company, My Home Group, which entered into a development agreement with one of the family members.
The revenue minister further asked as to why the BRS leaders Harish Rao and Rama Rao were not answering questions raised by former MLC K. Kavitha on large-scale corruption indulged by them. He felt that the family issues were now being spilt over in public space. “The Vattinagulapally dispute is your 'internal family affair' — what does the government have to do with it?” he asked.
Srinivas Reddy noted that blatant lies were being spread on the floor of the Assembly regarding the Kothwalguda stone crusher. The minister noted the crusher owned by Tirumala Metal Industries does not have any relationship with Raghava Constructions. “It is only during ORR works that Raghava Constructions had procured material from Tirumala Metal Industries. The CID inquiry into the matter will not only uncover the truth. This will also expose all the misdeeds when you were in power,” the minister cautioned.
