Hyderabad: Telangana state Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao said in the Assembly on Monday that a scientific land survey with the latest technology would be undertaken in the state to end land disputes and the Adivasi land issue.
He said Adivasi communities should not worry about the judgment of the Supreme Court as the verdict was applicable to those whose applications for the Right to Forest Lands (RFR) were rejected, while in TS, earlier governments have issued RFR certificates and the TRS government has also issued RFR to Adivasis and a majority of applications are pending with the government.
While assuring the Adivasis that no coercive steps would be taken against them, Mr Rao said that to resolve the issue, a cut-off date will be fixed to clear all pending applications for the RFR.
He said he had kept the revenue portfolio with him so that various land issues including the forest land disputes would end and revenue records could be rectified.
The scientific land survey was a permanent solution to the land disputes between the forest, revenue, and other departments, and also between individuals.
During a debate on the Vote on Account Appropriation Act 2019, Leader of the Opposition M. Bhatti Vikramarka pointed out that the government claims it has issued passbooks to 96 per cent of landholders in the state, but it has not taken any steps to resolve the problems of even four per cent and has not undertaken any land survey to resolve the disputes. He said that the Congress had undertaken a survey when it was in power, whereupon the Chief Minister asked why then the Congress had not resolved the disputes.
Mr Rao said, “It is the Congress which had messed up the forest lands issue. In 1966, the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru gave a call for state governments to notify forest lands and the chief ministers of the states at that time blindly notified huge chunks of land without foreseeing the problems that would arise in future.”
The Chief Minister said that the state government is thinking of issuing conclusive land titles to the land owners after the scientific survey as those certificates would give land owners the right to seek compensation from the government in case disputes arose after certificates were issued.
He said that he is consulting with legal experts to formulate the procedure for the issuance of the conclusive land titles.
He said that the survey would be completed in a year and the Dharani website, which will show updated revenue records, will be made functional in another six months.
R. Kantha Rao, Congress MLA from the Adivasi community, requested the Chief Minister to come to the rescue of Adivasis of the state. The Chief Minister assured him he would personally resolve the issue after June as the Model Code of Conduct would be in force till then in the event of Parliamentary elections being notified.
