Maa Bhoomi-Maa Panta survey: We have no land records, agriculture dept tells KCR

Hyderabad: The agriculture department has told the government that it will be unable to complete the Maa Bhoomi-Maa Panta survey before the June 10 deadline due to a bunch of problems.

These problems include non-availability of land records in some villages, non-regularisation of sada binami (agreements on plain paper) deals, assigned land in possession of others and issues relating to tenancy.

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had directed the agriculture department to conduct the survey to collect details of farmers, their land holdings and crops on the lines of Samagra Kutumba Survey to collect basic household data.

Mr Rao had announced a series of programmes for the benefit of farmers, and ordered that the the survey to identify beneficiaries be completed by June 10.

The department has subsequently communicated to the government that there are some constraints to completing the survey by the deadline. It said there were issues which required concerted efforts and decision making at the collector level and at the government level.

The department pointed out that records of inam land and succession cases were yet to be updated and names of successors yet to be recorded. The department asked the government to instruct tahsildars and revenue divisional officers to extend support and guidance to agriculture extension officers.

In some of the districts, the number of agriculture extension officers is less than the AEO clusters.

In some districts like Vikarabad and Medak, several clusters are vacant. The department has requested the collectors not to entrust other works to staff in the agriculture department who are involved in the survey.

Extension officers have to contact the farmers personally and obtain land and crop particulars. About 1,000 AEOs were recruited to ensure that there was one AEO for every 5,000 acres.