Miyapur’s 550 acres: a Supreme Court win for Telangana turns into a Revanth-KCR fight over who saved the land, and what happens to it now

A court verdict that both of Telangana’s main parties welcome has become the latest round in their fight. On Thursday, 29 October, the Supreme Court ruled that roughly 550 acres in Miyapur, under Survey Nos. 100 and 101 in Serilingampally mandal, belong to the government, settling an appeal that had been pending since the High Court ruled on the matter in April 2003, as Telugu Scope reported. Within a day, the debate had moved on from who owns the land to who should get the credit and who had wanted it for themselves.

The Chief Minister’s charge

Speaking to reporters in Delhi on Friday, Revanth Reddy described the ruling as historic and valued the land at about Rs 50,000 crore. His charge: that KCR, his close aide and Rajya Sabha member Damodar Rao, and the head of a Telugu daily newspaper had tried to get hold of the land, with businessman Goldstone Prasad fronting for them.

He went further, listing other plots he said the KCR family had eyed: the IMG lands, which he said KTR tried to take over together with the Bhalerao family; 143 acres in Manchirevula, which he tied to KTR and a firm, Rayalaseema Builders; and plots in Kancha Gachibowli and Mamidipally. By his count, court battles fought by his government have kept about Rs 1.5 lakh crore of public land in state hands. He challenged KCR and KTR to face him in the Assembly over the land deals.

The BRS reply

The BRS response came from Harish Rao, the party’s deputy leader in the Assembly. He accused Revanth Reddy of misleading the public and of taking credit for the previous government’s work. By his account, the case first went to the Supreme Court in 2003 and was admitted as a civil appeal in 2013, and KCR’s government briefed senior counsel C.S. Vaidyanathan to appear for the state from 7 April 2015.

Harish Rao also noted that the court leaned on its own 15 June 2023 ruling in the Trinity Infraventures case, which came while the BRS still ran the state. And he turned the charge around, accusing the Congress government of preparing to sell the 550 acres to benami buyers at throwaway prices within a day of winning them back.

The question after the verdict

That last point is where the political fight meets a real decision. Revanth Reddy has ordered officials to take over the plot and put a fence around it. Money from Miyapur, he says, will be spent first on education once the Cabinet approves, and a group of ministers looking at ways to raise funds will weigh how it is used. Whether that means selling the land, leasing it or keeping it as a public reserve has not been announced.

Neither party disputes the court’s finding. Each is asking voters to remember a different part of a 23-year case: the Congress its fight in opposition and its win in court, the BRS the years its government spent arguing the appeal.