Deccan Chronicle: Hyderabad: Monday, March 30, 2015.
A few Telangana ministers are proving to be embarrassments to the TRS government as they keep getting embroiled in controversies.
Agriculture minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy has allegedly built a ground-plus-six-floor building in his constituency Banswada in Nizamabad district though the gram panchayat had approved only ground-plus four.
He has also allegedly encroached on the road. Earlier, too Mr Reddy had courted controversy for his alleged involvement with the sand mafia in the district. A local BJP leader in Banswada, who had obtained information about the minister from the gram panchayat under RTI, was arrested on March 27. KCR takes note of graft accusations
In protest against the arrest of its leader, the BJP called for a ‘Banswada bandh’ on March 28, leading to complete shutdown of the town on Saturday.
Recently, power minister G. Jagadish Reddy recommended processing of a file recommending handing over government college land in Medak back to the family that had donated it a few decades ago.
This took place in Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s home constituency Gajwel, much to the embarrassment of the TRS government while the Legislative Assembly was in session. Mr Reddy defended his action saying that, “it was a mere recommendation and not an order”.
Over 40 acre of land in Jagadevpur had been donated to the state government by one Narasimha Reddy to set up educational institutions in 1969. The land was registered in the government’s name in 1979.
Recently, the donor’s sons asked for the land to be handed back on the grounds that the government had failed to meet certain conditions like naming the institutions after their father and installing their father’s picture.
They submitted a representation to Mr Jagadish Reddy who, instead of safeguarding government land providing free education to the poor and needy for nearly five decades, recommended the revenue department to draft a file and “circulate” for consideration.
There are allegations that the donor’s family has been eyeing the land since it is now worth nearly Rs 4-5 crore and has offered to share the receipts with leaders who would help them to get the land back.
The Chief Minister has asked ministers to file defamation cases against those who make false allegations against them but both the ministers are yet to file the cases.
Mr Jagadish Reddy, however, has filed a case against former Congress MP Ponnam Prabhakar who had accused him of receiving kickbacks from engineering college managements for releasing fee reimbursement arrears while he was education minister.
Earlier, ministers Srinvas and T. Harish Rao had faced allegations of having links with illegal sand miners in Nizamabad. Both have threatened to sue TD MLA A. Revanth Reddy, who had made these allegations in January, but are yet to initiate legal proceedings against him.
Similarly, endowments and housing minister A. Indrakaran Reddy is facing allegations of encroaching on lake land in his home constituency Nirmal in Adilabad district.Mr Reddy, however, has denied this and has filed a defamation suit against a vernacular daily.
Transport minister P. Mahender Reddy, meanwhile, is facing allegations of being involved in land settlements in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts, which he has denied.All these allegations and accusations against ministers have been brought to the notice of the Chief Minister who is apparently looking into them.
It now remains to be seen how Mr Chandrasekhar Rao will react and control his ministers for stirring up unnecessary controversies and embarrassing the TRS government, which promised a “clean and corruption-free administration” from the day it took charge, on June 2, 2014.
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