Hyderabad: Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy ordered a thorough investigation by a special investigation team (SIT) on the lease of the outer-ring road (ORR) toll collection to IRB company for 30 years during the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government for Rs 7,800 crore just before the 2023 Assembly elections.
During a short discussion on the state’s debt held in the Assembly on Thursday, December 19, the discussion led to a heated debate between deputy chief minister Bhatti Vikramarka and Siddipet MLA T Harish Rao.
Harish Rao raised the issue of 400 acres of land transferred from the revenue department to Telangana Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TGIIC) in Raidurgam by Congress for the land valued at Rs 75 crore per acre.
Bhatti Vikramarka said that the state government hasn’t given away the land to some private company like BRS did by giving away ORR tenders on lease for 30 years. Harish then advised the state government to cancel the contract if the state government didn’t like that tender.
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The chief minister who was listening to the back and forth between the two, stood up and announced a SIT probe into the ORR toll lease. Revanth Reddy said that as per the request of Harish Rao, he was ordering a SIT probe.
Harish Rao raised the red flag saying he just asked to cancel the contract and not to order a probe. He alleged that the chief minister was trying to mislead the entire state.
Revenue minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy reminded Harish Rao that as per his suggestion, if a government contract needed to be cancelled, first an inquiry was mandatory, and hence the chief minister was not misleading the people.
The chief minister, on February 28, had asked the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) to conduct a probe on how the tender was called for without fixing the minimum rate. The then HMDA joint commissioner Amrapali had ordered the officials to submit complete details about the tender process.
