Plan for Joint Survey of Disputed Lands Close to Forests
Farmers say forest officials are making wrong claims on their lands, harassing them
Adilabad: The Telangana government is likely to conduct joint surveys, involving forest and revenue officials, on the disputed lands close to forests and resolve disputes.
This is as part of the ongoing resurvey of lands in villages in the erstwhile Adilabad district. The revenue department is conducting a resurvey to identify whether these were assigned lands, endowments, or revenue lands.
Special teams have been formed for land resurvey and they are using Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) and rovers to accurately fix the boundaries of the individual agricultural land and other land holdings.
Forest officials cite a dispute over the 8,000 acres lying between the jurisdictions of the forest and revenue departments in Adilabad district alone. Both departments are claiming rights on the land.
Cultivators who have pattas for the disputed lands are worried. Forest officials claim it is a reserve forest. They are stopping farmers from cultivation or other agricultural operations or from construction of Indiramma houses, Anganwadi buildings or laying of CC roads in the villages.
Curiously, in some cases, forest officials are claiming that the patta land is reserved forest. When forest officials claim the right on the land cultivated by tribals and non- tribals for long years and they are also have revenue pattas, this is seen as a grave provocation. It creates law and order issues.
Several confrontations are taking place in the Adilabad, Komaram Bheem Asifabad, Nirmal and Mancherial districts.
Forest officials are not allowing any construction or development works in Gundepalli in Kammargam Gram Panchayat in Penchikalpet mandal and in Lumbininagar in Thummalaguda gram panchayat in Bejjur mandal of Komaram Bheem Asifabad district.
Kamera Venkati of Thummalaguda village in Bejjur mandal cited many instances where both the forest and revenue officials claim rights on the lands, causing embarrassment to the landowners having revenue pattas.
Forest officials show 1947 maps and claim rights on the land being cultivated for a long time as a ‘Mysura’ (reserve forest). They obstructed the construction of Indiramma houses at Dubbaguda (S) village, Sathnala mandal, by claiming that the land was part of the reserve forest.
But landowner Atram Lethu Bai carries with him a revenue patta for the land.
In this context, to set matters right, Asifabad collector K Haritha asked officials of revenue and forest departments to conduct a joint survey of the disputed lands along the forest areas to resolve the issues that arose as part of the resurvey of lands.
She said works on BT roads, bridges and culverts have been sanctioned in a few mandals under tribal welfare department and that these should begin without delay after getting forest department clearances.
