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Telangana Jagruthi Samithi president Kalvakuntla Kavitha has issued legal notices to leaders of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for making allegations against her husband, Devanapalli Anil Kumar, of financially benefiting from irregular land deals under the Congress government.
Addressing a press meet on Friday, December 12, Kavitha also blamed her brother and BRS working president KT Rama Rao for “planting the seed” for the present Congress government’s Hyderabad Industrial Land Transformation Policy (HILTP).
The policy is aimed at the “strategic conversion of industrial land within and near the Outer Ring Road (ORR) to productive and integrated urban spaces,” such as residential, commercial, and recreational spaces.
KTR, former Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development, has been opposing the HILT policy, alleging that the lands that were once given by the government to industries to create jobs for people are now being given to private individuals favoured by the Revanth Reddy government at throwaway prices.
Kavitha said she has served legal notices to BRS mouthpiece T News, Kukatpally BRS MLA Madhavaram Krishna Rao, and BJP’s floor leader in the Assembly, Alleti Maheshwar Reddy, for allegedly making defamatory statements against her husband.
She warned that she would take them to court if she did not get a public apology from them within a week. She alleged that the BRS and BJP were targeting her just as she had started her ‘Jagruthi Janambata’ public outreach programme to interact with people and highlight their problems under the previous BRS government and the present Congress government.
“They are claiming that my husband had some land dealings from which I benefited, due to links with the Congress. We never asked for any undue favours even when BRS was in power for 10 years,” she said. The former BRS MLC and MP from Nizamabad added that she never looted the public, while alleging that other BRS leaders did so habitually.
Her press meet came amid the deepening rift between her and the BRS party led by her father and former Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao.
Kavitha had resigned from the BRS and from the Legislative Council in September, a day after she was suspended from the party on grounds of “anti-party” activities. She blamed her two cousins, former Minister T Harish Rao and former Rajya Sabha MP Joginapally Santosh Kumar, for her ouster.
Denying that she and her husband were involved in any irregular real estate deals, she alleged that it was certain BRS leaders who were corrupt and “looted the public” when in power.
Kavitha alleged that the real estate businessman AV Reddy, to whom T News and others were trying to link her husband while alleging irregularities, was actually associated with BRS MLA Pochampally Srinivas Reddy. “That man (Pochampally) is always with KTR,” she said.
“They threw me out of the party, what more do they want?” Kavitha asked.
Speaking about BRS’ criticism of the Congress government’s HILT policy, Kavitha asked, “Who laid the ground for the HILT policy? The BRS government sold land given to distilleries, where it was supposed to build hospitals, schools, and 2BHK houses for the poor. It was converted from industrial use and sold to private entities. Wasn’t it KTR who signed off on those? There were many companies, but BRS leaders were selective about whom to lease the land to. They opened the windows and now the Congress government has opened the doors directly asking companies to loot (government lands).”
Opposing the HILT policy, KTR has alleged that the government is giving away industrial lands to build apartments, villas, and commercial complexes as it does not want industries.
“There is no land for houses, schools, hospitals and even cemeteries in Hyderabad city, but the government is saying that it will give 9,300 acres of land to private individuals,” KTR has said.
He said the government’s action would render hundreds of workers, who depend on industrial units for livelihood, jobless.
He stated that these are not private lands, but lands given by the government to private individuals with the condition that industries should be set up to employ people. He demanded that people’s assets should remain with them.
Claiming that while the market price for these lands is Rs 1 lakh per square yard, KTR said the Congress government is handing them to private individuals for just Rs 4,000.
The government has justified the HILT policy saying several industries established 50 to 60 years ago have become unviable or have shut down for various reasons. Another reason cited is that some units fall under polluting categories and are required to be relocated.