Hyderabad:
The 400 acres of land in the Kancha Gachibowli village in the IT corridor of Hyderabad has become the Ground Zero of a massive political row in the state, with the Congress government and the University of Hyderabad laying claim to it.
What sparked it off was the students’ protests over the government move to clear the land, bordering the varsity campus, on which it plans to set up an IT park.
The students claim the area is home to over 455 species of flora and fauna. The Telangana Government has reiterated that it is not forest land.
Last Green Lungs Of Hyderabad, Says KT Rama Rao
As the protests and the clean-up continued through the day, Telangana’s former Deputy Chief Minister KT Rama Rao slammed the state government and the Congress’s Rahul Gandhi.
“It happened at midnight. Please think about it. The government knows that Friday, Saturday, Sunday, are holidays and the court is on holiday. That is why they brought machines to clear the area, hundreds of police came and beat up students,” he said.
“Are you not able to hear the cries Rahul Gandhi? Why are environmentalist lovers at state and national level, intellectuals, why are you silent? Why can’t you hear this?” he added.
Addressing the media after meeting with protesting students at Telangana Bhavan, Mr Rao questioned why the government was in such a hurry to turn the land into a concrete jungle at a cost of Rs 30,000 crore.
“HCU and its surrounding areas are among the last green lungs of this part of the city. Destroying them without an Environmental Impact Assessment is a crime against Hyderabad’s future. Are we heading towards a Delhi-like situation where breathing becomes a luxury?” he questioned.
The Land Row
The Revanth Reddy government in Telangana made it clear today that the 400-acre land in Kancha Gachibowli, adjacent to the Hyderabad University, belongs to it.
In 2004, the state government of the then United Andhra Pradesh allotted this land to a private company, the Congress government said. It had acquired the land that was allotted to a private company for a 21-year lease by the Chandrababu Naidu government of united Telangana through a legal battle in the Supreme Court. Any dispute now will be subject to contempt of court, the government said.
A survey has revealed that not even a single inch of land belongs to the University of Hyderabad (Central University), it added.
The government led by Mr Reddy is giving priority to local sustainable development and environmental needs in every plan it is implementing. Those opposing the current project have vested interests and are misleading students, the government said.
What The University Said
The government’s statement has been denied by the university.
The University Registrar Devesh Nigam said in a statement that no survey was conducted in July 2024 by the revenue authorities to demarcate the 400 acres of land. The only action taken thus far has been a preliminary inspection of the land’s topography.
“The University of Hyderabad has been requesting the state government for alienation of its land. The University will forward the representations of the stakeholders to the State Government to reconsider the points raised and request the state government to conserve the environment and biodiversity in the area,” the statement read.
Controversy Over Arrests
There has been a controversy over the two students arrested by the police during Sunday’s protests. They were among the 53 “preventive arrests”, the police have said.
While a notice from the Gachibowli police station described Rohit Kumar and Naveen Kumar as students of HCU, a communique by the Deputy Commissioner of the Police on Monday said they were “not students there any more”. The police statement said they were arrested after a group of people tried to stop the development work forcibly and ‘attacked the officials and workers with sticks and stones”. An officer was injured in the violence. “There was no lathi charge on students nor were any students dragged from their hostels as wrongly alleged,” the statement read.
All are accused of unlawful assembly, rioting and attack on public servants.
The opposition BRS has accused the police of dragging the protesting students by their hair and thrashing them.
The students said they rushed to the site after noticing bulldozers arriving there. Multiple cellphone videos from the spot showed the clash between the police and the students and the police were seen dragging them into vans.
