HYDERABAD: The podu land pattas issued by the BRS government have in several instances turned very messy, and it is learnt that in the rush to issue the pattas before the last Assembly elections, the then state administration had not even ensured availability of digital copies of the pattas with the forest department whose land was used to give pattas.
Even worse, sources said that collectorates also do not have copies of the pattas issued by the BRS government.
Meanwhile, amidst clamour that thousands of applicants were not given pattas by the previous regime, the current government, it is learnt, is planning to hold a meeting soon with forest and tribal welfare department officials asking them to come prepared with details of pending podu patta applications, and if anymore eligible people were entitled to get such pattas.
According to sources in the government, one of the biggest challenges is to weed out bogus podu pattas that have been issued. The problem is quite widespread, the sources said, explaining that in many such instances, tribal families with support from local politicians, had at that time entered into deals with non-tribal illegal occupants of forest land to allow them to file applications for the pattas for land occupied by non-tribals, mostly from BC and OC communities.
Now, those who agreed to such deals are learnt to be approaching forest officials saying that they are not receiving any government benefits, for instance rythu bandhu assistance as the podu title deeds were not in their names, and with complaints that in some cases, they were not being allowed to use the land, which they once had used for agriculture.
But with no access to official podu patta copies, such cases are being referred to the forest department by the district collectorate staff. The forest officials too are throwing up their hands saying that they have no records of actual patta holders to check on such claims.
Sources said that nearly 50 per cent of such deals ended up with the ‘patta holders’ turning into rent seekers creating friction between the two sides.
It is learnt that a fresh bid is being made by top forest department officials to push their district officials to withdraw forest land encroachment cases filed against illegal occupation of forest land, as many of such occupants were given podu pattas by the BRS government.
The problem, sources said, was that the cases were filed by the forest department on land occupied after the original December 2005 cut-off date for issuing the pattas. In thousands of cases, the BRS government, using facsimile signatures of district forest officials, issued podu pattas to those who had illegally occupied forest land – in some instances even up to 2020 and beyond – despite the 2005 cut-off date.
The sources said that officials are worried that if they seek to withdraw cases in which charge-sheets were filed in courts, then the question that will be asked of them will be on how podu pattas could be issued for land occupied after the cut-off date.
