A public interest litigation (PIL) petition seeking direction to the State government to take back 31.35 acres of land in prime area of Raidurg from a real estate company has been filed in Telangana High Court.
The plea filed by Congress Lok Sabha member A. Revanth Reddy, involving transfer of land from a Delhi-based real estate giant to a Hyderabad-based company, is likely to come up for hearing on or after Monday. The MP requested the court to order for prosecution of officials concerned responsible for permitting the transfer of land in violation of allotment conditions.
According to the petitioner, the 31.5 acres of land of survey No. 83 of Raidurg village of Serilingampally mandal was part of 424.13 acres of land allotted by the then government of undivided Andhra Pradesh State in 2006 to Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Limited. After formation of Telangana State, the land came under the control of Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Limited.
The land was offered for sale to prospective developers, subject to certain conditions, as part of the government’s information technology policy. The PIL plea stated that M/s DLF secured allotment of the land and subsequently the land was transferred to M/s DLF Rayadurg Developers Private Limited for ₹ 580 crore in 2013. The second company, according to the petitioner, approached the authorities for its renaming as M/s Aqua Space Developers Private Limited, which was permitted. This company approached the government for exchange of the allotted land for another piece of land. The MP stated in the petition that the exchange of land too was permitted by the government along with exemptions of stamp duty and registration fees.
The transfer of land from the first company to the second one, the exchange of land, exemption of stamp duty and registration fee made a dent on the State exchequer to the tune of over ₹ 2,000 crore, the MP alleged in his petition. He sought an order to the State government and the TSIIC to ensure the land was not used against the allotment conditions. He also requested the court to direct the government to maintain status quo and not to create any third party interests with regard to the said land.
