Podu land pattas: Forest staff’s rift with govt heading for flashpoint
HYDERABAD: Clear battle lines are emerging between the state government and the state forest department on the podu land pattas issue with the latter making it clear that it will stick to the Recognition of Forest Rights Act’s cut-off date of December 13, 2005.
Officials said the Act is very clear, irrespective of what the government may claim when it comes to its promise of providing podu land pattas to all applicants. The rift has come to such a pass that on Wednesday, the department officials skipped a video conference chaired by the chief secretary, who wanted to discuss the podu pattas issue,among other topics.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that back in 2018 itself, the government informed the forest department that there was no proposal to regularize any forest encroachment after December 13, 2005. In a memo to the principal chief conservator of forests on August 28, 2018, the then special chief secretary (environment and forests) Ajay Mishra said “the PCCF (HoFF), Telangana State, Hyderabad, is informed that there is no such proposal to regularize encroachment after 13.12.2005 as per RoFR Act.”
Mishra was responding to a letter from PCCF (HoFF) P.K. Jha, who alerted the government on the dangers of allowing encroachments and promises of pattas on July 18, 2018.
There was no further communication from the government to the department on this subject since, multiple sources in the government and the department, told Deccan Chronicle on Wednesday.
Sources said that forest officials had urged the chief secretary on Tuesday, and again on Wednesday, not to include the podu pattas issue on the video conference agenda but there was no response to the request.
“Our officials and staff are upset and worried and so are their families about the safety of their members who are out in the field facing increasing dangers to their lives for doing their job of protecting forests,” a source, well-informed of the goings on in the department over the last couple of days, said.
The staff in the districts is under enormous pressure to ‘approve’ fake claims as real ones that people who made the claims last year, were in possession of forest land before December 13, 2005. The district administrations are leaning hard on the forest staff to break the law, sources said.
