Even as a legal dispute is on over land alignment for the Outer Ring Road project, the Government on Friday promulgated an ordinance to immediately take back the 855 acres assigned to M/s IMG Bharata by the TDP Government and ordered a CBI inquiry into the alleged irregularities in the allotment.

The decision to cancel the allotment by amending the Andhra Pradesh Government Property Act 1977 under which lands are normally assigned to private parties, and go in for a CBI probe was taken at a Cabinet meeting on Friday.

This inquiry will be independent of the one already ordered by Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy on alleged irregularities in ORR alignment.

Information Minister Mohd. Ali Shabbir told reporters that the decision also provided for scrapping the assignment of all lands if found used for purposes other than the stated objective.

The Government had alienated 400 acres to IMG Bharata at Kancha Gachibowli for a price of Rs 50,000 per acre and 450 acres at Mamidipalli (Rs 25,000 per acre) to develop and maintain sports infrastructure.

Soon after coming to power, the Rajasekhara Reddy Government decided to take back these lands on the ground of irregularities but half of the extent was untouched as it was already registered.

An offer was made to regularise the other half on payment of market value but there was no outcome.

Since then, these lands have been in focus frequently.

The Cabinet resolved that the transactions were effected by a “caretaker Government” in February 2004 and were “unconscionable and not in public interest.”