Hyderabad: State IT & Industries Minister D Sridhar Babu has called out the BRS’ hypocrisy, saying their claims about protecting HCU lands if they return to power are nothing but a joke.

The Minister reiterated that the State Government has no plans to encroach upon HCU lands, and that not a single inch will be touched.

He alleged that the BRS leaders were misleading students, using them as pawns for political gains. The BRS fabricated images and manipulated videos to provoke unrest on social media, he alleged. The Minister strongly condemned such deceitful tactics and urged BRS to stop misguiding students for political mileage. Sridhar Babu criticised KTR for resorting to personal attacks, which is highly inappropriate and demanded that he withdraw his baseless remarks against the Chief Minister.

“Attempts to hinder industrial progress through false propaganda are nothing short of a conspiracy to deny employment to Telangana’s young men and women,” the Minister said, adding that the 400-acre land in Gachibowli has no connection to HCU. “This land is under the full legal ownership of the government, as affirmed by both the High Court and the Supreme Court. Between 2014-2023, BRS oversaw the destruction of 4,28,437 acres of forest land. For the useless Kaleshwaram project, they cleared 7,829 acres of forest land. Between 2016-2019, Telangana ranked among the top three states in deforestation, with 12,12,753 trees cut down, as per a written response in Parliament. BRS uprooted thousands of trees in Warangal for their public meetings. The previous government also demolished massive government buildings covering 28 acres and destroyed nearly 1,000 century-old trees to construct a ‘New Secretariat’,” he said.

The agenda behind BRS’ propaganda is not fighting for HCU lands, students, or even environment conservation. Their real goal is to disrupt development, stall industries, and create unrest, Sridhar Babu claimed.