Opposition stages walk out over land acquisition

Water Grid project

Hyderabad: The Opposition staged a walk-out in Telangana Legislative Council while opposing the Domestic and Industrial Water Grid Pipelines (Acquisition of Right of user in Land) Bill, 2015. During the debate, the Congress and TDP members held that the Bill contained several anomalies and questioned the government’s intention for adopting the Bill in haste. The Congress MLC, M Rangareddy felt that the government was in a hurry in going for the Rs 40,000 crore project to favour some pipeline companies, while abandoning the Pranahita-Chevella.

He felt that the project started during Congress rule would have provided 240 tmcft of water. While Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy pointed out that this Bill was not a comprehensive. With the Collector being competent authority there was scope for misuse. He said that the Clause 14 clearly challenged the judiciary, with no appellate authority, as it clearly maintained that ‘no civil court has the jurisdiction.’

While the TDP MLC Potla Nageswara Rao felt that the farmers could be penalised and there was no scope for court intervention. Alleging that the voice of the Opposition was stifled, the Leader of the Opposition D Srinivas led the walkout. During the debate, the Finance Minister Eatala Rajender explained that the trunk pipeline would be 2 mts below the surface and government would be compensating for the loss. After the Opposition MLCs staged a walk-out, the Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao described their attitude as ‘anti-development’.

The Opposition also strongly opposed the Parliamentary Secretaries (Appointments, Salaries, Allowances and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, 2015, while terming it to be “political accommodation” to unemployed. D Srinivas felt that the “unconstitutional powers” would provide the Secretaries a chance to intervene. He also said the government’s decision to go with this would compromise ‘Oath of Secrecy’.