Hyderabad: Telangana deputy chief minister Bhatti Vikramarka said that all concerns being raised by the students of University of Hyderabad (UOH) and environmentalists are being addressed. On the ongoing protests against the state government acquiring 400 acres of UoH land, he stated that the government reclaimed 400 acres of Kancha Gachibowli land from “the hands of frauds only to create wealth and jobs for the youth”.
Addressing media in Hyderabad on Tuesday, April 1, after having discussions with the alumni, students of UOH and environmentalists on the issue of the auction of those 400 acres, Vikramarka said that the Telangana government was not going to disturb the ecological imbalance, and would take steps to protect the rock formations and lakes inside the UOH campus.
He assured that the representation given by the delegation for withdrawing cases against the jailed UoH students was being considered by the Telangana government.
Showing the revenue documents on exchange of 400 acres of land between the revenue department and UOH from January 2004, he explained that steps were taken by the earlier state governments to reclaim 400 acres of the land which were allotted to one Billy Rao of IMG Bharatha by former chief minister of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh (AP) N Chandrababu Naidu. This allotment of land was contested by Naidu’s successor and former AP chief minister Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy in 2006.
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Telangana Revenue minister Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy questioned how high-rise buildings were constructed in 27 acres of the same land when Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government was in power earlier. He wondered why BRS leaders “didn’t remember biodiversity and wildlife when those buildings were being constructed”.
“In 2022, in this very university the vice chancellor went to High Court against a road that was being constructed in its land. The High Court had clearly ordered that not just the 400 acres, asserting that not a single acre belonged to the petitioner in the entire campus,” Ponguleti pointed out.
Ponguleti also stated that chief minister A Revanth Reddy had instructed to ascertain whether 1,500 acres or 1,550 acres belonged to UOH, and to take steps to demarcate and protect that land.
Reddy dared BJP and BRS to prove even if a single animal was being hurt in that land which is being cleared to facilitate the development of that area for multiple purposes including establishment of IT companies.
