Telangana government eyes allotted land

Hyderabad: After identifying state-owned lands and lands under Urban Land Ceiling (ULC), the TS government is now concentrating on 2.38 lakh acres that were allotted to beneficiaries under various schemes. The government has already issued directions to all the district collectors to identify lands allocated earlier under various schemes for agriculture purpose to SCs, STs and other communities.

After the YSR government came to power, the governments in erstwhile AP distributed about 2,38,479 acre of lands to 1,83,058 beneficiaries in a phased manner. A revenue department source said that the previous governments distributed lands under various schemes. “During YSR’s period, lands were allotted to about one lakh beneficiaries in four phases from 2005 to 2008. Later, the Congress government continued the same scheme in 2010 and 2012,” the source said.

The source said that most of the beneficiaries were allotted land and given pattas by the previous governments but the revenue officials did not pinpoint the land or handed over possession. “The government is now concentrating on such cases to benefit poor families. Similarly, several beneficiaries did not take possession of the lands since they were not able to meet requirements like using it for agriculture purposes. Such cases will also be considered. All the district revenue authorities are now identifying the lands and beneficiaries. The department is also focusing on bogus beneficiaries,” the source explained.

Revenue officials have been directed to verify the lands but there were no further directions from the government for any actions on recovery or re-allocation. Meanwhile, the TS Industrial Infrastructure Corporation has also identified as many as 3,000 acres that was allotted to industries earlier but is not being utilised. TSIIC MD E.V. Narsimha Reddy told DC that the corporation has already issued notices to these industries.

“The erstwhile APIIC had allotted nearly 27,000 acre of lands to various industries in the course of a decade. We have identified 3,000 acres that haven’t been utilised so far. Some respondents have moved courts,” he said. The government has also directed the revenue task force working under chairmanship of retired IAS officer S.K. Sinha to verify the encroachments and illegal transactions of bhudaan lands.

The task force has already submitted five reports on bhudaan lands located outskirts to the city and now it is concentrating on the lands located at Bhuvanagiri. The revenue task force might submit a report to the government in a month. The task force has already identified 10,939 acres of government lands in all the 10 districts and recovered 3,520 acre of land worth '5,344 in 25 cases.