Telangana govt trustee of assets, has no right to sell: Congress

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], June 16 (ANI): Dasoju Sravan Kumar, All India Congress Committee (AICC) spokesperson said that the state government must withdraw its decision to sell government lands immediately as it is only a trustee and not the owner.
Speaking to ANI, Dasoju said, "The family members of Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar and some other leaders of the ruling party had amassed assets including farmlands worth hundreds of crores of rupees, while the government was trying to auction the lands in the name of revenue loss. It is a mystery, how Telangana Government's income reduced, while TRS top Brass' income drastically increased."
"The government must remember that it is a trustee not the owner of the government lands," the Congress leader added.
He also said that the Congress party during its tenure had distributed at least 25-30 lakh acres of the land to the dalits, tribals, backward classes, and people of other communities, while the Chief Minister is "selling lands to private people for commercial purposes."
Responding to Minister Harish Rao's comments against the Opposition regarding the selling of the lands, Dasoju questioned why was the government facing problems even though it had earned significant revenue.
"The government says that the exports of the IT touched Rs 1.45 lakh crore. On the other hand, the prices of liquor, petrol and diesel and revenue in the form of taxes have also gone up. Considering all these things, how could the government face revenue deficit?" asked the Congress leader.
He also alleged that the TRS, which is a 'very small regional party', has emerged as the wealthiest party in the country. "The party had sent thousands of crores of rupees to other parties in various neighbouring states during the elections in 2019 as KCR tried to form Federal Front at that time. The party also spent Rs 200 crore in the recent graduate MLC elections for two seats. How could they get huge amounts of money for all this?," questioned Dasoju.
Stating that Congress would question the government and also conduct an agitation across the State, he challenged the TRS government for an open debate.
He also made it clear that Congress would not allow the government to sell the lands and added that they would knock the doors of the court, if needed, to stall the process.
Responding to a query on 'gifting KIA cars' to Additional Collectors, he said, "As such KCR has pushed the surplus state of Telangana into the debt trap state with a whopping debt of Rs 4 lakh crores. The government is wasting money to procure luxury cars to the Additional collectors, who mainly visit the rural areas."
"The Additional Collectors already have government cars in good condition, so, why new cars in this crisis," questioned Dasoju.
The Congress leader's remarks came days after the Telangana government purchased a fleet of 32 cars, estimated to cost about Rs 25 lakh each, for IAS officers in the state amid the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.(ANI)