HYDERABAD: A division bench of Telangana High Court on Monday issued notices to the State government and others concerned for filing counter affidavit in a PIL filed challenging the State government’s decision in allotting two acres at Kokapet in Rangareddy district at a nominal rate of Rs 1 per acre to Sri Sarada Peetham of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. The bench was passing this order in a PIL filed by Ch Veera Chary, a social activist from Secunderabad, with a plea to declare the government’s decision as illegal.
Senior counsel S Satyam Reddy, appearing for the petitioner, contended that the decision taken by the State government to allot land at a nominal price to Sarada Peetham in the name of ‘veda patashala’ was against the State’s interests. In fact, Sarada Peetham has landed properties worth crores of rupees both in India and abroad. The said land price fixed by the government was very nominal as against the registration value of about Rs 12 crore per acre.
The government has not even given any reason as to why such a valuable land was allotted to a private person at just `1 per acre and the State has no control on such veda patashala, he argued. After hearing the case, the bench issued notices to all the respondents who included the special chief secretary to revenue, managing director of HMDA, Rangareddy district collector and G Kameswara Sarma, Dharmadhikari of Sri Sarada Peetham to respond and adjourned the case hearing by four weeks.