Telangana Bharatiya Janata Party president and MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar has demanded Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao issue land rights for the farmers involved in the podu cultivation in the proposed revenue meetings to be held across the state soon on Friday.
In yet another open letter to KCR, the party chief said the forest department should also be involved in the revenue meetings to solve the long-pending tussle, raids against the tribals should be halted and false cases filed again st them should be withdrawn unconditionally.
He claimed that the prolonged agitation by his party Adilabad MP Soyam Babu Rao and others had forced the Government to accept applications for regularisation of such lands in Nov-Dec .2021, yet the final solution has been eluding.
Mr. Sanjay Kumar reminded the Chief Minister about his previous promises to find a solution soon and that necessary land papers will be issued to farmers concerned. “Our party is ready to provide sufficient chairs for you (CM) and officials to solve the issue, he remarked. The time has come for the government to live up to its assurance and help the Scheduled Tribes by handing over the land papers from July 15 at these proposed revenue meetings, he said.
The BJP leader charged that the committee to look into the podu lands under the chairpersonship of Tribal Welfare Minister Satyavati Rathod and Revenue and Forest Department Ministers as members has been a ‘non-starter’ even as close to 3.5 lakh applications are pending seeking regularisation.
It has been seven months since the applications were accepted but little action has been taken on the ground, he charged and questioned how much more the TRS government needs to village level meetings to clear the applications. In this context, he also accused the forest department of forcibly taking over tribals’ land for ‘Haritha Haram’ planting of saplings scheme leading to clashes across the districts and foisting of ‘false cases’ against the local people.
Tribals are the real inheritors of the forests and will not tolerate any snatching of the rights, therefore, the government should declare the extent of forest land, land used for podu cultivation, number of applications in each mandal and district received, before the revenue meetings for clarity. Any further delay in solving this vexatious issue will only complicate matters, added Mr. Sanjay Kumar in his letter.
