Plans in Place to Recruit 1,000 Surveyors: Ponguleti

Hyderabad: Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy denied any proposals to conduct a survey of agricultural lands sharing borders with forest lands. The minister informed the House on Thursday that plans were afoot to recruit 1,000 surveyors to fill their vacancies and pegged the requirement at 892.

The issue, it may be recalled, has often led to conflicts between tribals and the forest department officials in the state. Meanwhile, he acknowledged that the problem exists in 30 to 35 constituencies across the state.

“Eight members raised the issue. CPI member Kunamneni Sambasiva Rao brought the issue of forest officials’ objection to cultivation of 600 acres at Regallu village in Khammam district. The land being cultivated by tribals and non-tribals was cleared by me. The Chief Minister spoke with the chief secretary of Karnataka to resolve a boundary dispute to avoid any sort of trouble for farmers. The boundary will be demarcated shortly,” the minister said.

Earlier, raising the issue during question hour, Congress member K. Madan Mohan Rao said that the forest department was not honouring RoFR (Recognition of Forest Rights Act). The officials are questioning those who are cultivating lands for 30 years now. When I met the collector he informed me that forest officials were not cooperating. Farmers are not being allowed to even dig bore wells when they have no other means of getting water for cultivation. Lambadas are not being allowed to construct houses.”

The issue has to be solved by the Indiramma regime by way of a joint survey of the lands by both forest and revenue officials, he said.

BJP’s Palvai Harish Babu informed that lands that were tilled until 2014 were sought to be taken over by the forest department for their afforestation plans.

“I was also remanded for 40 days and attempt to murder cases were filed against me. The BRS lost in this area because of this issue. All illegal cases against podu farmers should be withdrawn,” he said.