Few takers for AP land patta scheme

Nearly three months after the AP government came out with the sche-me, only 17,000-odd squatters on government lands have come forward to avail the benefit. The response has been dismal from districts like Kurnool and Srikakulam, where in the number of applications submitted were just ni-ne and 13 respectively. What shocked officials is that regularisation has been offered “free of cost” to the poor families holding white ration cards as also the Aadhaar card. Only houses on 100 sq yards or less are eligible for regularisation.

The scheme came into effect on August 15 this year, and will close after 120 days. “There are thousands of houses in every city and town that have been erected on government lands.

Many of these are eligible for regularisation. We will look into the reasons for the poor response,” said a senior official in the Revenue department.

Officials said a reason for the poor response was lack of awareness among the prospective beneficiaries about the zero-cost regularisation process. Also, the failure of the elected representatives and the official machinery in taking the offer to the people led to the lack of response to the scheme.

Sources told Deccan Chronicle that Chief Minister N. Chandra-babu Naidu should order an inquiry into this lack of response. “The free-of-cost regularisation for BPL families was offered following representations by politicians and elected representatives. How could the response be poor? Is it that only the henchmen of politicians have submitted applications, who are mostly benamis of their bosses,” a source wondered.