Land pooling YSRCP sees ulterior motive

Hyderabad: Denouncing the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government’s land pooling policy for capital formation, the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) said that it would oppose tooth and nail any such move that lacked transparency, legal sanctity and promoted commercial interests leaving the farmers in the lurch.

“Our stand that the capital formation issue is only to benefit the inner circle of TDP leadership is vindicated with the State announcing that two private companies will be taking up the building of capital, which is a move heavily loaded with commercial interests. We reject such proposals,” party spokesperson Dharmana Prasada Rao told reporters here on Tuesday.

Dharmana said that till recently the Chief Minister gave an impression that Singapore would partner with the State government in capital formation, but the State made it clear, after the preliminary discussions on land acquisition, that it would only provide technical knowhow and expertise while the building of the capital would be taken up by two private companies.

“Turning the capital formation into a mercantile activity is unbecoming of a State government in a democratic set-up as it has to take all stake holders, including the Opposition parties into confidence before taking up a project of such a grand scale which will percolate beyond the term of the present government,” he said.

“Taking a decision on such an important issue arbitrarily without any proper debate is not acceptable and we will oppose the move at all forums. A decision of such a magnitude has to be taken after considering various issues, including legal sanctity, but it appears the proposal is floated only to create a market and benefit private parties,” he said.

“We demand the State function in a transparent manner and take decision that stands legal scrutiny that will be helpful to locals. There are many cases pending on land disputes which take long periods for settlement if the law of the land is not followed,” he said.

As the Centre placed all the revenue and expenditure and deficit of the budget in the public domain every month, the State should also emulate the Centre and place the figures on public domain to be transparent, he said.