On a day Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy claimed the state has attracted nearly Rs 3 lakh crore of investments and more than 1 lakh private sector jobs since he took over, BRS MLC Kalvakuntla Kavitha on Monday alleged that the government was planning to mortgage 1.75 lakh acres of industrial land with Telangana Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TGIIC) to raise loans.

She also accused the government of issuing an order to change the corporation’s status from private to public to facilitate the land mortgages.

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Kavitha said after mortgaging the Kancha Gachibowli land for some Rs 10,000 crore, the Congress government was eyeing the 1.75 lakh acres of land available with TGIIC and accordingly, issued GO no.12 on April 15, permitting the change in TGIIC’s status from a private limited company to a public limited entity.

This would facilitate larger borrowings from capital markets through bonds, debentures or even an IPO. She even accused the government of being secretive on the issue and pointed out that the Congress government has already borrowed Rs 1.8 lakh crore in its sixteen months in office.

“We believe that the state government is going to trade the 1.75 lakh acres of land that is available with TGIIC in Telangana. It is an unfortunate move since the trading or selling of the land was not the intention of (setting up) the corporation; it was primarily set up to develop this land and give it to industrialists who want to invest in Telangana or develop the state,” said Kavitha.

The BRS MLC wanted the government to come clean on the issue, arguing that this move will hurt the interests of Telangana.

Meanwhile, the chief minister, addressing the gathering at the inauguration of the new facility of a software company, Sonata Software, claimed Hyderabad was emerging as a key hub for the global capability centres (GCCs), particularly in the field of software, life sciences and AI-ready data centres.

He announced several major infrastructure and development projects, like the setting up of a dry port linked to a seaport in AP through a dedicated road and rail corridor. He spoke about plans to set up another planned urban township called the Future City with a dedicated AI City.

He claimed that Telangana was the top state when it came to drawing investments.