HYDERABAD: In what has come as a shot in the arm for Telangana government, which is hard up for cash, the High Court on Thursday cleared the path for selling government lands in the State. The High Court gave the direction on a petition filed by BJP leader Vijayashanthi in July last year against the auctioning of government lands at Kokapet and Khanamet in Hyderabad.
The court, however, made it clear that the entire process of auctioning of lands should be very transparent, which includes calling tenders and selling the lands through e-auction. Vijayashanthi in her PIL argued against the auctioning of the lands as they are meant for public purposes and prayed that GO 13 was issued on June 10 last year, proposing the sale of land parcels at Kokapet and Khanamet to generate a revenue of nearly Rs 50,000 crore, be scrapped.
While listing HMDA, GHMC and Collectors of Hyderabad, Rangareddy and Medchal as respondents, she said it was not a good practice to sell lands for mobilising funds for running the State. She pointed out that if the government is allowed to dispose of its lands, the governments in future would have no land left for allotment to public purposes, like building schools and hospitals. The court while disposing of the petition said that it cannot find fault with the auctioning of government lands.