Harish Rao thanks Sridhar Babu before escalating Telangana land scam allegations
Hyderabad: BRS leader Harish Rao thanked Minister Sridhar Babu before launching a pointed attack over Telangana land scam allegations. He addressed reporters at Telangana Bhavan on Saturday and said the minister had indirectly validated KTR’s charge on the alleged land scam. Soon after making that remark, he challenged Sridhar Babu to an open debate on the land figures.
Harish Rao alleged that Chief Minister Revanth Reddy planned to sell 9,298 acres valued at ₹5 lakh crore for only ₹4,000–₹5,000 crore. He argued that the remaining amount showed the scale of the alleged scam. Another claim he made was that Sridhar Babu falsely reduced the land figure to 4,740 acres. Because of the gap, he said he would prove the 9,298-acre figure during a face-to-face discussion.
Harish Rao intensifies stand on Telangana land scam allegations
The BRS leader said officials received instructions to clear approvals for the industrial plots within a week. He added that buyers had to pay within 45 days. That timeline, he argued, showed a plan to finish the entire sale inside two months. In his view, the administration intended to complete a ₹5 lakh-crore scam within that short window.
Further questions were raised about land pricing. In Mallapur, he pointed to 240 acres with a TGIIC value of ₹36,827 per square yard against an SRO rate of ₹17,581. Uppal, he said, had 447 acres valued at ₹52,523 by TGIIC but only ₹21,886 under the sub-registration rate. Gandhinagar’s land held a TGIIC value of ₹46,895, yet the SRO rate stood at ₹14,591. Hayathnagar, he noted, showed the same SRO figure despite a TGIIC value of ₹54,340. All these cases, he said, indicated a deliberate push to use the lower SRO rates.
He described the policy as a “Revanth Reddy family transformation plan” rather than an industrial transformation effort. His allegation included claims that the chief minister’s brothers occupied land after the policy took shape six months earlier. He also said the government collected a 30 percent tax and an additional RR tax as part of the scheme.
Harish Rao warned Revanth Reddy that cases would not deter the opposition. He noted that the BRS would continue to highlight what it viewed as wrongdoing. He concluded by demanding a special session of the Assembly to examine the new land policy in detail.