With Health Minister and senior TRS leader Eatala Rajender refusing to resign after allegations of land encorachments on Friday, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has taken away the Health, Medical and Family Welfare portfolio from the Minister even as the preliminary inquiry began into the alleged encroachment by the Minister.

Governor Tamilisai Soundarajan has approved the transfer of the portfolio from Eatala Rajender to the Chief Minister.

The move comes in the wake of Eatala Rajender refusing to put in his papers after the Chief Minister ordering a revenue and vigilance inquiry into allegations made by a few farmers in Medak district on Friday. The farmers alleged that the Minister and his followers had encroached their assigned lands abutting his poultry farm forcibly.

Eatala’s exit from the Health Ministry could temporarily impact the State’s fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

Strongly reacting to the allegations, Eatala Rajender had welcomed the probe and even wanted an inquiry by the CBI or a sitting judge into whole of his assets.

Claiming that the farmers had asked him to “show them an exit route and help them get some money from the barren land”, the senior TRS leader had alleged that it was pre-planned move to assassinate his character.

The Chief Minister asked Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar to get the District Collector conduct an inquiry into the allegations. He also directed the Vigilance DGP to conduct a separate inquiry.

Congress national spokesperson D Sravan Kumar had alleged that the Chief Minister made Eatala Rajender a scapegoat to makeup for his failure in containing the pandemic in the State.

Terming it as a conspiracy against a bacwardclass leader, he demanded an inquiry into all the land grabbings by various ministers.

Communist Party Telangana State Secretary Chada Venkata Reddy demanded an inquiry by a sitting High Court judge into all the encorachments and sale of all assigned lands in the State.

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