Land auctions only to augument state's resources: YSR

Hyderabad, July 28 (UNI)Brushing aside the Opposition's demand for a judicial probe by a sitting judge into auctioning of prime lands, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy today maintained that only to raise resources for various mega projects auctions were conducted and that too, in a 'transparent manner.' ''I assure the state no irregularity has taken place in auctioning of lands,'' he told a press conference.

''The government will rebut the charges point by point in the coming Assembly session if the Opposition raised it,'' he asserted, dismissing as ''meaningless'' the charge that the Congress Government had turned itself into a 'realtor' handing over prime property to various companies at a throwaway price on the pretext of industrial development.

The government was alloting lands only to 'Fortune 500 companies and big Indian Industries which have a proven track record to generate employment in IT and IT-enabled sectors at concessional rates, he said, adding by rationalising land allotment process, the state had generated Rs 12,500 crore of exports and created employment potential for 1.62 lakh IT professionals.

Resource mobilisation was crucial for major state initiatives including 'Jalayaganam' which benefitted millions of farmers, 'Indiramma' Scheme, which touched the lives of a majority of the weaker sections in rural and urban areas and the World Class Super Highway Project, the greenfield International airport and 'Fabcity', which would become the driving force to attract substanial investments from global players into the state, he pointed out., The Budget passed by the State Assembly provided for raising Rs 3,050 crore by way of disinvestment and sale of government lands through public auction.

During the TDP rule, various major infrastructural projects had been taken up and ''auctioning of government lands is nothing new''.

Referring to the meance of land grabbing, he said it had become very difficult to protect prime government property and said lands worth Rs 50,000 crore were mired in protracted litigation in courts.

He asserted that the ''government will mobilise resources for massive development and welfare projects and none can stop the state's onward march in the path of development.'' UNI SM GM 2050