Cong accuses Tel govt of turning land survey into TRS affair

The main opposition Congress today alleged that the TRS government in Telangana has turned the comprehensive land survey taken up by it into a "ruling party affair".
"Why only the TRS MLAs, MLCs and MPs are involved (at every stage in the land survey process) and not Opposition leaders? Is it a survey conducted by the Telangana government or the TRS party?" Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir told reporters here.
He said public representatives belonging to opposition parties should also be involved in the process.
"Why not involve the opposition parties in framing rules and regulations for the survey so that the process is foolproof and will be useful to expose the corruption and scams in the land allotments , if any," Shabbir said.

He said the then Congress government of Chief Minister K Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy had also conducted a comprehensive land survey in the entire undivided Andhra Pradesh during 1993-94.
A record 4.5 lakh acres of land held by the poor were regularised and 'patta pass books' (documents for title holding) were granted, he said.
"Many suspect that it was a survey just to target few politicians (both ruling and opposition) who were not in the good books of the government, and to arm twist them to toe the line of the TRS in the coming days and 2019 elections," he said.

The state government said it had taken up the land survey to put an end to disputes and to rectify errors.