Hyderabad: Back in March 2023, the then state government run by the BRS, insisted on collecting facsimile signatures of district collectors, forest officers, and project officers for respective district Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) units in a bid to ensure faster preparation and distribution of podu land patta passbooks.
These facsimile signatures are now at the forefront of an ongoing investigation into preparation of fake podu patta passbooks that was unearthed by forest department officials in Mulugu district.
“Anywhere between 400 and 500 fake podu patta passbooks are believed to have been created and distributed. Some of these have been used to obtain farm loans from banks illegally. Some of these books could have also been used to obtain Rythu Bandhu funds,” an official said, adding that investigation was also needed into whether those who got the fake passbooks illegally occupied parcels of forest land listed in these fake documents.
Investigations into the case — that began in Mulugu district — over the past few days have revealed that the ‘beneficiaries’ of the fake passbooks were spread over Jayashankar Bhupalpally, Warangal, and Mahbubabad districts.
Sources said this racket appeared to have begun in September/October 2023. With the scale of operations spread over several districts, the forest department which exposed the scam, has decided to hand over the case and the investigations to the police for a full probe.
It may be recalled that the then BRS government promised to issue fresh podu land pattas and called for applications in 2021 and last year began distributing the pattas. As the time was running short and it fell behind its February deadline to issue the passbooks, the tribal welfare department, the nodal agency for issuing the pattas, sought facsimile signatures of the officials to complete the process quickly.
In all, the BRS government accepted claims of 1,51,146 ST persons covering 4,06,369 acres for forest land in 26 districts to issue new patta passbooks. Eightytwo per cent of the claims were settled in the nine districts — Bhadradri Kothagudem, Mahabubabad, Asifabad, Adilabad, Mulugu, Khammam, Warangal, Nagarkurnool and Mancherial — with significant tribal populations. Of these districts, four are now in the eye of the ongoing investigation into the fake podu land patta passbooks.
