Rajasekhar Reddy

Hyderabad, Jan. 3: Santa Claus has long gone home with his bag of goodies, but surprises are still spilling out of Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy’s bag.

The Andhra Pradesh chief minister has donated nearly 997 acres held by his family and relatives to the government for the landless poor.

The announcement, made by state revenue minister D. Prasada Rao today, comes barely a month after Reddy triggered a political storm by giving up 310 acres purchased by his father and other family members.

The decision had the Opposition demanding the chief minister’s scalp and prosecution for illegally possessing land for decades.

The move was widely seen as a prelude to initiating action against media baron Ramoji Rao, who has been accused by the ruling Congress of possessing large tracts of land in violation of the land reforms act.

According to a committee chaired by state municipal minister K. Ranga Rao to identify all such plots, Telengana district alone has nine lakh acres of the around 40 lakh acres spread across the state.

After Reddy’s first donation, a team of reporters from Enaadu TV, which is owned by Ramoji Rao, had unearthed over 1,000 acres allegedly held by the chief minister’s family in the name of Madras Plantation Pvt Ltd at Kodumuru village in his native district of Kadapa. They were registered in seven batches of 245 acres each, the reporters said.

Rao today clarified that the 997 acres being surrendered by Reddy, also in Kadapa district, fell in the “private, non-cultivable” category and there was “absolutely no illegality in either the purchase or holding of these lands”.

Reddy’s largesse has raised the hackles of other leaders. The Telugu Desam Party and the Telengana Rashtra Samity accused him of trying to cover up the state’s power crisis.

But the Congress hailed its chief minister as a “modern Vinoba Bhave” for his path-breaking initiatives to bring the party closer to the people.

Reddy also earned a pat from an unexpected quarter. But the praise from the Maoists and the Left was laced with a pinch of salt. “It is obvious he has much more (land). He’d rather surrender it in one shot instead of instalments,” said a Maoist spokesperson.