MANCHERIAL: Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao spoke over the phone to farmer K. Sharath of Nandulapalli in Nennel mandal of Mancherial and took steps to resolve his land problem.
Mr Sharath had posted a video on Facebook a few months ago, expressing his anguish over a revenue officer’s corruption and how his land was transferred to someone else. Mr Sharath said he had inherited the land from his father Kondapalli Shankaraiah.
It is reported that after promising help to the farmer, Mr Rao asked him to post in the social media that the CM resolved the issue. The audio of Mr Chandrasekhar Rao speaking to the farmer went viral on social media on Wednesday.
It is learnt that the CM wanted to speak directly to Mr Sharath after he came to know that the farmer was distressed after village revenue officer Karunakar transferred his seven-acre land to someone else’s name as part of land purification. Since then, Mr Sharath was running from pillar to post to get his land restored.
His issue was brought to the notice of the CM as his Facebook post was shared by many users.
The farmer, in his post, stated that the local VRO cheated him and changed his land records to another person’s name. The CM assured Mr Sharath that revenue officials would visit his home and resolve the issue. Mr Chandrasekhar Rao also informed Sharath that he had directed Mancherial collector Bharati Hollikeri to look into the matter.
The collector visited Mr Sharath’s house and the local Tahsildar office and verified land records related to Sharath.
The issue also exposed the corruption in the revenue department. Mr Chandrasekhar Rao, in his interaction with Mr Sharath, admitted that revenue officials take bribes. He even reportedly told Sharath that some revenue employees had represented to him that the land transfer sections must be kept with them but he had declined. The Chief Minister also told Mr Sharath that many people were facing the same problems and it was high time that land transfers and transactions were streamlined.
Mr Rao said the state government’s ‘Dharani’ website, to be launched after June, would streamline land related problems.
