CM brushes aside allegations of injustice

Hyderabad, Dec 28 (INN): Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday said that the State Governments are empowered to amend laws on land as enshrined in the Article 254.

Speaking in the Legislative Assembly on the issue of land acquisition, Chandrasekhar Rao said that many states in the country have already amended the Land Acquisition Act 2013 and only Telangana state has not touched the law till now.

The Chief Minister accused the Congress of framing a tough law which would leave the successive governments handicapped. He said that the Congress was aware that it would not come to power in 2014 and hence made this law to ensure that the successive governments do not carry out any development work. He questioned as to how the government could work on projects if there was no land. Land is essential for any project and government should acquire it to construct projects, he said. He questioned as to how were the projects like Nagarjuna Sagar, Srisailam and SRSP projects were constructed if there was no land acquisition.

Accusing the Opposition parties of provoking the farmers against Mallanna Sagar and other projects, the Chief Minister said that about 75% locals were ready to give their land for the Mallanna Sagar project and the government had promised better compensation for the project oustees than the compensation laid down in Land Acquisition Act 2013. Farmers were misled by Congress and other parties despite the TRS Government offering fair compensation, he lamented. He said that the government also promised to give double bedroom houses to the project oustees besides compensating them thrice the land registration value and compensation for land acquisition. No other government had offered such a fair compensation like TRS did, the Chief Minister reiterated.

Chandrasekhar Rao also slammed Left parties accusing them of misleading farmers. He said that the Left parties were creating unnecessary fuss over the land acquisition and were posing threat to the lives of farmers. He said that the Opposition parties will be responsible if the farmers accrued losses due to misinformation campaign by the Opposition.

The Chief Minister said that the government was aiming to make Karimnagar and Warangal district raise two crops with enough irrigation facilities like the Twin Godavari districts in AP.

Chandrashekar Rao assured the farmers that TRS Government would not do any injustice to them and sought cooperation. He urged that the amendments to the land legislation should be supported by all quarters for the development of the state.