Opposition slams abolition of VRO system in Telangana

Hyderabad: Opposition parties in Telangana slammed the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) government's move to abolish the Village Revenue Officer (VRO) system by bringing in the New Revenue Act.

BJP state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar termed the move as ridiculous and meaningless. He alleged that chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao had earlier favoured landlords in the name of a comprehensive survey of land records and now again was attempting to benefit them by abolishing the village revenue officer posts at the base of the revenue system.

Bandi Sanjay alleged that the decades old revenue system has been defamed, derailed and corrupted in Chandrashekar Rao's regime. He said that the reasons for declaring a 'holiday' for land registrations was best known to KCR only.

He also alleged that the state government introduced the Land Regularisation Scheme (LRS) to ensure that valuable lands can be grabbed by the TRS and the family members of KCR.

Congress MLA D Sridhar Babu said that without taking measures to reform or rectify the alleged flaws in the existing VROs system, replacing with it another system was meaningless.

Stating that bringing in new Acts was not the solution for rectifying the lacunae in the system, he felt that the faults in the systems can be rectified with dialogue and deliberations.

He asked why the chief minister did not constitute a committee of efficient officers to study the revenue system and to recommend reforms.

CPI state secretary Chada Venkat Reddy alleged that KCR has taken a unilateral decision on abolishing the VRO system. He said that through such unilateral decisions KCR was watering down the aspirations of the poor in the state.

The Telangana VROs Welfare Association expressed concern at the move of the state government. The office-bearers of the association made it clear that they are not against the act of the state government but blaming them as corrupt to abolish the system paining them a lot. They demanded that the state government ensure their service conditions and benefits while merging them with other departments.

V Ravinder Reddy and Goutham Kumar, president and general secretary of the Telangana Revenue Officers Association, welcomed the decision of the state government to abolish the VRO posts. They urged the state government to consider and protect the service conditions of VROs while adjusting them into other departments.
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