BRS to step up struggle against HILTP with visits to clusters planned for land use change

HYDERABAD

The Opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has decided to intensify its struggle against the alleged scam being unveiled by the Congress government through its Hyderabad Industrial Land Transformation Policy (HILTP) by allowing conversion of land use at throwaway fee to make easy money through commissions.

As part of the struggle, the party leadership has decided to send eight fact-finding teams comprising senior leaders of the party to the industrial clusters in Hyderabad where the government is planning to implement HILTP to allow conversion of land use from industrial to commercial, residential and other multi-purpose needs/use.

Working president of the party K.T. Rama Rao held a teleconference with key leaders, including former Ministers, former and sitting legislators, on the fact-finding visits to be taken up on Wednesday and Thursday (December 4 and 5). He alleged that the government was conspiring to benefit the close associates of bigwigs in the ruling party and the government in monetising the industrial lands by converting their use at very low fee/price compared to the market prices.

Agreements were already signed between the industrial units to which the land was allotted and the associates of government bigwigs to commercialise the lands to an extent of 9,300 acres now worth about ₹5 lakh crore.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chairman of the Legislative Council and party leader Banda Prakash alleged that the government was planning to complete the process of HILTP implementation to hand over the lands to developers for non-industrial uses in just 45 days. He suggested the government conduct public hearings and take up social impact assessment of the lands as it was done before allotting the lands to industries.

He pointed out that there was no clarity on the purview of HILTP too as the Minister for Industries D. Sridhar Babu had stated that it would not apply to leased lands. Several industries were given lands on lease too besides the outright sale. He suggested sale/conversion of industrial lands which were not in use through bidding as being done in several States.