Telangana's podu pattas plan hits fresh hurdle

Hyderabad: The Telangana government’s plans to distribute pattas for podu land may run into rough weather with the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) making it clear that user rights over forest land cannot be given to anyone who does not qualify under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) (ROFR) Act, 2006.

If the government wants to give user rights over occupied forest land to anyone who does not qualify, it must ensure that the pattas are given only after it secures permission under the provisions of the Forest Conservation Act, the CEC said.

The government is preparing to give pattas for 1,50,012 claims covering a forest area of 4,05,601 acres, or 1,641 sq km. The district administrations received some 3.5 lakh applications for podu pattas covering around 11.5 lakh acres, after the government called for fresh applications to be submitted between November 8 and December 8 of 2021.

As per the current schedule, the distribution of podu pattas is to begin on June 24.

This exercise could now be under a cloud with the CEC writing a letter on June 5 to the Chief Secretary, saying the Chief Secretary, and the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Head of Forest Force) (PCCF HOFF), “will ensure that no forest encroachment which is not qualifying to be allotted under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 is regularised without obtaining of forest clearance under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980.”

A copy of the letter from the CEC, set up by the Supreme Court as an expert panel to assist the court on matters relating to forest and environmental issues, was also marked to the PCCF (HOFF).

The CEC’s letter essentially means that applications received by the state government after it called for them in November 2021, after the original cut-off date of December 2005, may not qualify for issuing of the podu pattas.

If the government chooses to go ahead and issue pattas to 1,50,012 claims with most of them received after it called for fresh applications, then it would need to follow the Forest Conservation Act provisions. This would in turn mean that the government would have to provide land for compensatory afforestation (CA) under a ‘land for land’ principle making it mandatory for showing 1,641 sq km of land for CA work. If CA is to be taken up in degraded forest land, the extent should be twice the size of land for which clearances are sought under the FC Act.

The 1,50,012 claims for which the government is reportedly ready to issue podu pattas for, are spread over 26 districts of the state.