The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has demanded that the State government seek an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the alleged gobbling up of government, assigned, endowments, wakf and forest lands worth ₹2 lakh crore by the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) regime.
Speaking on the voting of demands for grants as part of the annual financial statement 2024-25 in the Assembly on Tuesday, Floor Leader of the BJP A. Maheshwar Reddy stated that the government was required to inform the House how the assigned lands had come down from 24 lakh acres in 2014 to just 5 lakh acres in 2023. Similarly, the extent of wakf and endowments land had come down by 40% and forest land by 15% during the same period. He stated that the last time a comprehensive land survey was done in the area (Telangana) was during the Nizam government in 1940. That was the reason why the details of government lands too were not proper now, he said, and requested the government to take up a comprehensive land survey too.
On the allocation for agriculture and allied sectors, he said the guidelines formulated by the State government were aimed at denying the crop loan waiver benefit up to ₹2 lakh to 26 lakh out of 70 lakh farmers as it was being extended only to 44 lakh farmers. The budgetary support for Rythu Bharosa, tenant farmers, farm workers and bonus to paddy was insufficient, he said adding that bonus to paddy alone would require ₹12,000 crore allocation.
Earlier, K. Venkataramana Reddy, also of the BJP, alleged that a large extent of forest land rights (Record of Forest Rights) were in the hands of non-tribals across the State and they must be resumed and given to the genuine tribal farmers. Further, he requested the State government to complete adjustment of VROs and VRAs in other departments at the earliest.
