Adilabad: Giving huge relief to tribal podu cultivators who are getting pattas, Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao on Friday instructed Chief Secretary A. Santhi Kumari, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests R.M. Dorbiyal and Director General of Polcie Anjani Kumar to immediately withdraw police cases filed against tribals on charges of encroaching forest land.
The cases had been rendered meaningless now as the government has provided ownership documents to podu land, he said.
Rao was speaking at an event after formally distributing podu pattas to some tribals at a function after inaugurating the integrated district offices complex in Komaram Bheem Asifabad district.
He said the government was issuing pattas to 1.51 lakh podu farmers for 4.6 lakh acres. These beneficiaries would also get money under Rythu Bandhu. The government would give pattas to non-tribals who are cultivating such land in due course, after officials verify that they have been living in that place for 75 years, Rao said.
Rao said the government was giving pattas not as any political tamasha but to make the lives of tribals better.
He instructed the Chief Secretary to take steps to supply three-phase power to agriculture fields in remote tribal areas.
He noted that a few days back, the World Health Organisation (WHO) had recognised the improved the health situation in the tribal areas of erstwhile Adilabad district. Seasonal diseases were contained, thanks to improved medical facilities and supply of purified drinking water, the Chief Minister said, adding that a section of the media used to deliberately give negative coverage on the health situation in the past.
The Chief Minister said that there were good results with regard to cultivation of land under the ‘Giri Vikas’ scheme, through which pump sets are being provided to tribal farmers. He said that the uniqueness of issuing pattas is that they are being given in the name of a female family member.
Patting the power sector employees for ensuring 24 hours of uninterrupted power, he recalled an incident when there was no power for 36 hours in the house of then chief minister Kotla Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy.
He said Komaram Bheem Asifabad people might have never imagined a medical college and an integrated collectorate building in Asifabad.
He praised government employees for their active participation in the Telangana agitation.
Ministers A. Indrakaran Reddy, Prashanth Reddy and Mahmood Ali, MLAs Aram Sakku, Koneru Konappa, Balk Suman and ZP chairman Kova Laxmi were present.
