KTR narrates his experience on soaring of land prices in Telangana, ascribes it to KCR

HYDERABAD: Bharat Rashtra Samithi working president and Telangana‘a Municipal and Urban Development Minister Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao, on Friday, said that the wealth of the farmers soared manifold as the land values in the state skyrocketed. He said that it was possible only because the efforts of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao.

Participating in the ceremony of National Panchayat Awards 2021-22 at Professor Jayashankar Agriculture University in Rajendranagar of Ranga Reddy district, the minister claimed that the farmers had prospered with the surge in the land prices by a large amount.

KTR recalled an incident where his grandfather's land fetched a whopping Rs. 30 lakhs an acre.

Here is what the minister said verbatim:

“The sarpanch of Moinkunta is here only. It is my grandfather’s native village. The sarpanch, Ms Vanaja, is my aunt. Owing to sentiment, I asked my uncle (her husband). I am not sure is he is here. If sarpanch is a lady, her husband must be surely around. Isn’t he here? Yeah, he is there at the corner. Since everyone is engaged in agriculture, I also wanted to do so and raise oil-palm. Our Monikunta is located.

“From Siddipet, one has to go to Mustabad. It is 25 km away from Siddipet. Minister Dayakar Rao also came to inaugurate two-bed room housing. It’s located there. I asked my uncle to find the piece of land owned by my grandfather due to sentiment. Let’s buy that piece of land. He said fine and took four-five days of time and called me and informed me that ‘the owner would give discount, as you wanted the land.’ On enquiring who the owner was, I was told he belonged to Hyderabad. When I asked how much would he give the piece of land to us, I was told its Rs. 30 lakh per acre. I felt like I was fainting.

“Then we went to locate this piece of land in Moinkunta. From Siddipet, you have to travel 24 km and from there, we had to go four km deep inside off the main road. We have to cross a stream – a bridge needs to be built on it – and found it. It’s that piece, the owner wanted to offer to me at Rs. 30 lakh after discount.

“I want to appeal to you to think once. Is there any village among the 12,769 village panchayats in Telangana, where there is an acre of land available for less than Rs. 10 lakh. Isn’t it true that the wealth has increased in the State? Isn’t it true? Once upon a time, if one has a landholding of one acre costing Rs. 1 lakh, today the value of the same piece of land soared to Rs. 10 lakh-Rs. 30 lakh or more. Doesn’t it boost confidence? Doesn’t it give confidence to him that if the something happened to him, the family could be taken care of by the landed property? Isn’t it the efficacy of KCR Government?

“You may ask what has the government to do with the soaring land prices? If the government has nothing to do with that, the prices should go up between 2004 and 2014 also, right? If it’s happening automatically, land prices across the country should go up, no? It should increase in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra. Is it happening so? Please enquire with your friends and relatives as to what’s happening?” said KTR.