Hyderabad: The abolition of the AP Bhoodan Yagna Board by the Telangana State government has triggered a fresh row between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh governments.
The Telangana government had abolished the Board and took possession of all files regarding land allotments made by the board all these years.
The Board has lands in over 430 mandals, nearly 10,000 acre, located in both AP and Telangana. The files are being scrutinised by the Telangana government to ascertain the irregularities in land allotments made in the united state.
The AP government is angry at the seizure of its files and not handing over them even two weeks after the Telangana government abolished the Board and sealed it’s office in Nampally.
It is planning to take up the issue with the Governor and the Centre and lodge a strong protest over the “unilateral decision” taken by the Telangana government in abolishing Bhoodan Board, which had interests in both states.
The Telangana government has appointed a panel headed by principal secretary of revenue B.R. Meena to exercise the powers of the Board without consulting the AP government.
AP chief secretary I.Y.R. Krishna Rao has taken a serious view of abolition of the Board and seizure of its files and has asked his Telangana counterpart Dr Rajiv Sharma to direct his revenue officials to return the files concerning AP immediately.
The AP government’s contention is that it’s up to the Telangana government to set up its own Bhoodan Board but it cannot abolish the existing AP Bhoodan Board, which has interests in AP also.
The committee, which scrutinised the seized files, found that nearly 80,000 acre of Bhoodan land, mostly located on the city outskirts covering Ranga Reddy, Medak and Nalgonda districts, has been misused by selling to private individuals, who took up commercial and other realty projects in violation of the norms.
Acharya Vinobha Bhave had launched the “Bhoodan movement” in Pochampally village in Nalgonda district in 1951. Several landlords had pledged 1.95 lakh acre owned by them to the movement voluntarily for redistribution to landless poor.
Of this, the Board had distributed 1.10 lakh hectares. Another 10,000 acres is currently in the possession of the Board but there are no proper records with regard to the remaining 80,000 acre, which the officials feel has been encroached upon.
The committee found that even with regard to the 1.10 lakh acres of distributed land, a large chunk has been transferred to realtors against norms.
