Podu Pattas for 2.14 Lakh Acres Under Scrutiny

Hyderabad: The hurried distribution of podu land pattas in 2023 by the then BRS state government is learnt to be back under scrutiny, with questions being raised by forest department officials on the status of papers for 2,14,388 acres of forest land in various districts, which were learnt to have been issued ignoring objections.

That the last on the matter has not been heard became clear this past week with the Central Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court holding discussions with state government officials. It is learnt that the CEC sought explanations on why an excess of 2,14,388 acres were included under podu pattas despite forest officials either not recommending the same, or writing remarks questioning the validity of the claims.

Sources aware of the developments said that there were a series of video conferences on the matter of podu pattas for 2.14 lakh acres, and a CEC member also visited the city to discuss the issue with officials this past week.

The Telangana High Court too is seized of the matter with two PILs before it on how the Forest Conservation Act’s provisions were violated in granting pattas for 2.14 lakh-plus acres under the guise of the Recognition of Forest Rights Act.

It may be recalled that the then BRS government had called for fresh applications for podu land pattas in the run-up to the 2023 Assembly elections, and there was a surge in applications. Though questions were raised on some of the procedures adopted by the government to speed up the process, including using facsimile signatures of forest officials on the podu patta passbooks, the process was pushed through.

Sources said that information collected through RTI applications submitted to the forest and tribal welfare departments showed that district level committees set up to scrutinise the applications, approved 1,33,301 claims covering 3,58,760 acres of forest land, against 67,192 claims for 1,44,388 acres that were recommended by forest officials.

Now, the questions being asked, according to sources, was why the district-level committees overlooked the objections raised by the forest officials over claims which they did not find to be correct, or were not as per law. Sources also said the committees misrepresented the clarifications issued by the Union Ministry of tribal affairs on processing of the claims on relevance of satellite imagery, as well as evidences that claimants were allowed to produce.