The Telangana government on Wednesday agreed to constitute a Legislative House Committee to identify the extent of land, either assigned to various backward sections of society or belonging to wakf, endowments and churches, that was encroached in the new state's 10 districts.

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao announced in the state Assembly this afternoon that an extent of 1.90 lakh acres of land assigned to Dalits, tribals, backward castes and other landless poor was suspected to be encroached. There is every need to restore this land to the original beneficiaries.

"We are not concerned about what happened in the past, but henceforth we will not spare anyone. Let the House Committee probe all the lands and submit a report to the Assembly. We will take necessary follow-up action," Rao said, responding to a discussion on a Call Attention Motion today.

The Call Attention Motion pertained to 8.39 acres of assigned land that was allegedly in the illegal possession of current president of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee Ponnala Lakshmaiah.
Though it was obvious that the government wanted to target Lakshmaiah on the land issue, the Chief Minister maintained that they had no ill intention of targeting any particular individual. In Lakshmaiah's case, the erstwhile government (of Kiran Kumar Reddy) itself issued cancellation orders. Those orders will be implemented anyhow but our main intention is to free all lands belonging to the poor from encroachers. Be it assigned lands, ceiling surplus lands, bhudaan lands or those belonging to wakf, endowments or churches...let the House Committee conduct a detailed probe so that we can restore those lands, KCR added.

-PTI