Hyderabad University land row: ‘Govt has no power to sell land,’ says BJP MLA Payal Shankar; detained | Watch

The Hyderabad police on Tuesday detained Payal Shankar, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Telangana, as he stepped out of the MLA Quarters in Hyderabad to visit Hyderabad Central University (HCU) and the disputed 400 acres of land.

Shankar came down heavily on the Congress-led State Government over a land dispute related to the alleged sale of 400 acres of land under the University of Hyderabad (UoH) in the city’s Gachibowli area.

Also Read: University of Hyderabad students’ protest: Nearly 50 detained, girls ‘forcibly taken away’ over land auction |10 updates

BJP MLA noted that despite the land being owned by the government, it doesn’t have the “power” to sell it and called for the withdrawal of the “thought” of selling the area.

“That 400 acres of land belongs to the government, but that doesn’t mean the government has the power to sell it. Today, students and environmentalists are demanding 400 acres for the university, but why is the government not listening to them? The government can bring money from wherever it wants, but it cannot generate another land adjacent to the university. They should withdraw their thoughts of selling that 400 acres of land,” the BJP MLA.

The government can bring money from wherever it wants, but it cannot generate another land adjacent to the university.

Earlier on Monday, the UoH issued a statement refuting the claims regarding the land demarcation survey on its campus in July 2024.

In an official statement, the university clarified that it had neither agreed to nor been informed about any such survey for demarcating 400 acres of land. The administration dismissed the allegations as unfounded.

According to the University, in response to the recent spread of misinformation in the media and by other individuals, the University of Hyderabad wishes to clarify that no survey was conducted in July 2024 by the revenue authorities on the University campus to demarcate the 400 acres of land resumed by the State Government in 2006 from Ms IMG Academies Bharata Pvt Ltd.

Meanwhile, Union Minister G Kishan Reddy on Monday demanded an immediate halt to the sale of the 400 acres of land under the University and urged the government to stop tree-felling activities. This comes amid protests by multiple students against the government’s decision regarding the land.