Telangana leader puts land on sale to keep poll promises

An elected representative of the Telangana’s ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has put her land up for sale to raise funds to fulfil at least some of her election promises because the government did not release funds for developmental works in her constituency,

Chimpula Sailaja Reddy, who represents Chevella block in Ranga Reddy Zilla Parishad, on Sunday put up a ‘For Sale’ board near at her 100-square yard residential plot in Chevella town, about 60 km from Hyderabad, stating that she wants to sell the land and use the money for undertaking developmental works in her constituency.

Sailaja was elected in 2014. Despite being a ruling party leader, she could not get the required funds. “I made several representations seeking release of funds to the Chevella block. I also got the support from the other elected representatives in the district. But there was no response from the government till date,” she said.

“Last year, she moved the high court, seeking release of ₹540 crore dues from the government to all the local bodies in the state in the form of seigniorage fee (cess collected from mining of sand, gravel and granite). And the court ordered that the dues be released within two months. Our Chevella block would have got around ₹60-70 lakh. Even then, there has been no response,” Sailaja’s husband Ch Satyanarayan Reddy said.

Sailaja said the plot, which she put on sale, would fetch around ₹35-40 lakh. “I know the amount I would get is not enough to fulfil all my promises but I will get the satisfaction of fulfilling at least some promises. If I manage to sell the land, I will use the money to lay internal roads towards agriculture lands,” she said.

HYDERABAD: