Never made land promise to Dalits: CM KCR

Hyderabad: Denying the Opposition charge that the TRS had gone back on its poll promise of giving three-acre land to Dalits, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao said the TRS had never made such a promise. All that it had said was that each family should have at least three acres of land.

The party had clearly stated that if a Dalit family had two acres of land, the government will give them one more acre. One should check the TRS manifesto before making any allegations, he said. KCR said there should be assigned lands to give but unfortunately no assign land was available in the State.

This issue came up during a discussion on Dalit Bandhu issue, when AIMIM leader Akbaruddin wanted to know what happened to the promise of three-acre land to each Dalit family by the TRS.

Replying to the questions raised by the members, the Chief Minister also referred to the issue of Podu lands. He said there was a need to resolve the issue and along with it care should also be taken to see that the forests were preserved. He was of the view that MLAs should take the responsibility of ensuring the forest cover in each constituency. They should form a committee of the tribals and ensure that the forest cover was maintained.

On the request of taking an all-party delegation to New Delhi on the categorisation of SCs, the Chief Minister said that there was no need for this. "The State government has already sent a resolution passed by the Assembly to the Centre and had written 25 letters to the Prime Minister.

"I went to Delhi 10 times... What more can we do?" He told the BJP members, "You are the great persons here... If you can get it done, we will welcome you with big garlands."

KCR demanded that the Centre should take up BC census. The BJP government at the Centre was shying away from taking up the caste census as per the affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, he added.