Khammam farmers happy over settlement of POB lands

Khammam: The long-pending glitches over lands listed within the POB (prohibited order book) of Dharani portal are now being settled.

Revenue officials have become proactive in dealing with the issue by acquiring details of farmers’ lands, like survey numbers, extent of land, its history over 100 years and how the land changed hands. Whenever required, district officials are sending teams to the office of CCLA (Chief Commissioner of Land Administration) to know details of the land.

Till a year ago, there had been about one lakh survey numbers in the POB. Revenue officials have been settling them one by one, either accepting ownership of farmers or denying the same after checking pertinent documents in detail.

So far, 68,546 survey numbers involving 89,594 acres of lands within the POB have been checked suo motu by the revenue department. They have okayed 52,267 of the survey numbers while rejecting 16,275 of them. As a result, farmers have got 67,630 acres of land, while their claims over 21,914 acres have been rejected.

Tirumalayapalem mandal stood first in solving the POB cases, with 5,094 survey numbers involving 8,200 acres having been cleared. Next come Madhira with 4,556 survey numbers and 5,045 acres respectively and Chintakani with 4,172 survey numbers and 4,201 acres. Lands on the remaining survey numbers of the two mandals have been determined as belonging to the government.

Court cases have also been pending with regard to several survey numbers. Officials have set aside these numbers. Survey numbers that got settled first have been those that figured in POB without any reason. The administration identified them first and settled them immediately.