Guntur: Former minister Vadde Sobhanadreeswara Rao has urged the government to immediately halt the allocation of lakhs of acres of public land to corporate companies in the name of development.
He was speaking at a roundtable discussion on alleged illegal land allocations held at the Pensioners Association Hall in Guntur on Monday. On the occasion, he alleged that the government is attempting to take away nearly 26 lakh acres of assigned land from the poor and transfer it to large corporations for projects such as solar power.
He stated that the government, which should act as a trustee of public assets, is leasing out lands for as long as 99 years at nominal rates, which he termed unjustifiable. Recalling past instances, he said the Supreme Court had rejected the allocation of land by the Telangana government to a private international arbitration centre in Hyderabad.
He further pointed out that a writ petition challenging alleged illegal land allocations is scheduled for hearing in the High Court on April 27, and noted that the state government has yet to file its counter.
He also recalled that the High Court had earlier struck down a proposal by the Chandrababu Naidu government to allot Swaraj Maidan in Vijayawada to private entities.
Questioning the government's priorities, he asked how it could undertake a 189-km Outer Ring Road project with a width of 140 metres while failing to allocate Rs 5,000 crore for the construction of 10 government medical colleges. Former minister Perni Nani questioned the benefits to Andhra Pradesh from the proposed Google data centre project, which reportedly involves subsidies worth Rs 26,000 crore along with the allocation of hundreds of acres of land. He also questioned why land was being allotted free of cost to the Lulu Group in Visakhapatnam, while the company acquires land through auctions in other cities such as Ahmedabad.
Jana Chaitanya Vedika State President Vallamreddy Lakshmana Reddy highlighted disparities in land pricing, stating that land was sold to the Reserve Bank of India in Amaravati at Rs 4 crore per acre, while more than 700 acres were allotted to private educational institutions such as VIT, SRM, and Amrita at around Rs 50 lakh per acre.
He demanded that the government release a white paper detailing all land allocations made since it assumed office. CPM leader D Ramadevi, former MLC K S Lakshmana Rao, former MLA Sk Mastan Vali, and social activist Dr Kurra Vasundhara expressed concern over growing inequality, alleged crony capitalism, and the impact of large-scale land allocations on farmers and public resources.