Hyderabad: In a sharp political attack, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Monday—for the first time—accused the Congress govt in Telangana of attempting to “bulldoze forests” in the Kancha Gachibowli area, referring to the controversy surrounding 400 acres of land abutting the University of Hyderabad.
PM Modi made these remarks during a public rally in Haryana, while inaugurating several developmental projects along with chief minister Nayab Singh Saini.
“Congress is betraying the people. In Telangana, they made false promises to win power and are now harming forest land and wildlife. For us, politics is a vehicle of service, not power,” Modi said, contrasting the BJP’s governance with Congress-led states, where he claimed prices were soaring and the environment was being neglected.
His comments came after a BJP delegation, including Union ministers G Kishan Reddy and Bandi Sanjay, met environment minister Bhupender Yadav and education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, urging intervention to halt any land auction in the Kancha Gachibowli area. The environment ministry has already sought a report from the Telangana govt, while Kishan Reddy has written to chief minister A Revanth Reddy demanding a halt to the proposed auction.
The Congress hit back with TPCC president B Mahesh Kumar Goud saying, “PM Modi is forgetting his own track record. He virtually inaugurated five buildings at UoH that lacked proper forest and municipal clearances. His govt admitted in Parliament that over 1.09 lakh trees were cut in the past five years. He should get facts straight before accusing others.”
Goud further said Modi himself had admitted that 17,000 trees were felled in Ahmedabad. “The real intention behind Modi’s comment is to divert the attention of people from the Congress govt’s achievements on SC categorisation, 42 per cent BC quota and fine rice supply,” he claimed.
Congress MP Chamala Kiran Kumar Reddy said, “Modi misused his platform and repeated misinformation. Even his minister Kishan Reddy withdrew his social media claims after it was revealed the land controversy was linked to AI-generated content. If Modi is from the BC community, why is he not talking about BC caste census.”