Adilabad: Forest Department Attempting to Raise Plantations on Podu Lands Cultivated by Non-tribals
Adilabad: The podu land issue has begun haunting the Congress government and has become a a headache for local party leaders in the erstwhile Adilabad district.
Opposition parties and their leaders allege that the state government has begun a drive to retrieve podu land from cultuvators.
The forest department is zeroing in on podu lands cultivated by non-tribals; forest officials are bargaining with non-tribal podu cultivators to give some portion of the land to raise plantations. Forest officials have said they have instructions from the top to this effect.
The current issue is mainly related to non-tribals who have been cultivating podu land for a long time and are awaiting pattas. The previous BRS government issued pattas to the podu land cultivated by tribals.
In places like Ankushapur in Kagaznagar mandal in Komaram Bheem Asifabad district, forest officials are trying to take back the forest land cultivated by non-tribals. A similar exercise is on in Itikalpahad in Chinthalamanepalli mandal, where land is needed for a tiger corridor between the Kawal tiger reserve of erstwhile Adilabad district and Tadoba Andhari tiger reserve of Maharashtra.
The local non-tribal farmers claim they have been cultivating the lands for 30 or more years and that they got pattas and governmental benefits like crop loans and Rythu Bandhu.
BJP MLAs Palvai Harish Babu of Sirpur (T) and Payal Shankar of Adilabad met principal chief conservator of foriests Mohan Chandra Pargaien at Aranya Bhavan on Tuesday and briefed him on the situation.
Incidents of clashes between forest staff and podu cultivators are on the rise.
Non-tribal podu cultivators were preparing to sow cotton. They strongly resisted the forest staff who attempted to occupy the land in Dabba, Kondapalli, Kothaguda and Itikalpahad in the Sirpur (T) Assembly constituency.
Incidents of forest staff obstructing cultivation of the podu land were reported in the last two days from Keshavapatnam, Bavojipet, Gundala and Sirichelma villages in Ichoda mandal in the Boath Assembly constituency. A similar incident was reported from Ankoli in Adilabad Rural mandal in the Adilabad Assembly constituency.
Forest staff tried to raise plantations in podu land cultivated by local non-tribals in Survey No. 58 near Badi in Bela mandal in Adilabad Assembly constituency.
Harish Babu alleged that the BRS government of K. Chandrashekar Rao had failed to give pattas for the podu land and the forest department did not process even 10 per cent of the applications they received for the documents.
He said local farmers have been cultivating over 700 acres for a long time in 145 survey numbers on the outskirts of Ankushapur. They got the pattas but forest officials were trying to occupy or take back those land parcels.
