Drones to survey all lands in districts of AP from August

VIJAYAWADA: Ministers Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy, Botsa Satyanarayana and Dharmana Prasada Rao have instructed officials to speed up survey of lands under Jagananna Bhoo Hakku – Bhoo Raksha programme for resolving all land issues.

Participating in the ministerial meeting with officials at the secretariat in Velagapudi on Friday, the ministers said presently 52 drones are being used to conduct a comprehensive land survey of the state. So far, these drones have surveyed 2,149 villages. Ground truth process has been completed in 756 villages and ground validation done in 535 villages.

During the meeting, officials informed the ministers that Survey of India, AP government and private survey agencies are planning to procure total 172 drones for conducting the overall survey of the state. Officials said as many as 9,283 appeals have been received from public regarding land issues. Of them, 8,935 appeals have been settled. They pointed out that laying of survey stones is going on in 51 villages. So far, 18,487 survey stones have been laid.

Officials said processing centres have been set up in 13 districts. Similar centres will be set up in remaining 13 districts by June. By the time the overall drone survey starts in all districts, there will be 100 centres to process information gathered from across the state.

There are 123 urban local organisations in Andhra Pradesh with 30 lakh structures and seven lakh vacant plots spread over 5,548.90 sq km area of the state. Officials said steps are being taken by revenue department to issue ownership certificates as per the rules in Gramkantham in rural areas.

The ministers said Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy is treating the survey as a prestigious programme of state government. The CM’s intention is to ensure that all ambiguities are removed and there are no land disputes in future.

Ramachandra Reddy, Satyanarayana and Prasada Rao told officials that a comprehensive scientific survey be done with regard to residential areas in urban and rural areas, agricultural lands in rural areas, and vacant lands in urban areas. They wanted officials to rectify past irregularities related to forest lands. They suggested that revenue and forest officials hold joint meetings to take action against encroachments throughout the state.