BRS leaders condemn house demolition in Telangana as ‘Bulldozer Raj’

HYDERABAD: Reacting to the demolition of 75 houses in Mahbubnagar town on Thursday, BRS president KT Rama Rao advised Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge not to turn Telangana into “Bulldozer Raj”.

Rama Rao posted on X on Friday: “Dear Kharge Ji, As you said, demolishing someone’s house and making their family homeless is both inhuman and unjust. This is exactly what is happening in Telangana with total disregard for law and judiciary. Below is a video from Mahbubnagar town where 75 houses of poor people were demolished at 3 am without any warning. Out of these destitute people, 25 families are also physically disabled. Justice without due process is no justice. It is an abomination of modern civilization. Please advise the Congress government in Telangana not to become another Bulldozer Raj in the country (sic).”

Meanwhile, BRS leader Dasoju Sravan Kumar expressed serious concerns over the recent measures to protect the lake, terming them “Bulldozer Raj”.

In an open letter to Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and HYDRAA Commissioner AV Ranganath, Sravan accused the state government of imitating the tactics of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath by using aggressive demolitions that violate constitutional principles.

Sravan noted that many of these lakes have shrunk by 61 percent over the past 70 years due to deliberate encroachments by crony capitalists, self-serving politicians, real estate agents and the mafia.

This problem extends beyond Hyderabad and affects thousands of water bodies in the region, posing a serious threat to the environment and ecological balance.

However, he described the recent incidents in Mahbubnagar and Ram Nagar, where demolitions were carried out at night, hitting houses of poor and middle-class families without prior notice, as an attempt to create fear for political gains instead of addressing real issues of encroachment. Such heavy-handed measures violate constitutional principles, Sravan said.