The market price of the open lands on the outskirts of Hyderabad is more than one crore rupees per acre. But the who's who of Hyderabad will get it by paying just about five per cent of the actual cost. VIPs include judges, IAS officials, MPs, MLAs and even journalists.
The Andhra Pradesh Government has issued orders on May 4, allocating 245 acres of land to the rich and influential persons. Out of the allocated land, judges will get 38 acres, IAS and IPS officers will get 55 acres, MPs and MLAs will get 72 acres and media persons will get 70 acres, at different locations.
The State Government justifies this distribution saying it is not new in the state. Information & Public Relations Minister Mohammed Ali Shabbir, said, "What we are doing is not new for Andhra Pradesh. So far we distributed lands to legislators, bureaucrats and journalists at least three times earlier and this is the fourth time we are doing this".
Lands will be allotted at Nanakramguda, Poppalaguda, Vattinagulapalli, Nizampet and Pet Basheerabad. All of these locations are adjacent to the new IT hub on outskirts of the city. Surprisingly, the state government had recently expressed its inability to sell these lands to the IT companies citing shortage as the reason. IT major Wipro had asked for 350 acres for its second campus, but got only 100 acres.
Government says IT companies require long stretches of land while the space being allotted to the VIPs were patches of few acres on each location. The State Government has already initiated the process of the unprecedented discounted sale of the prime lands.
