Telangana govt sincere on podu land issue: Puvvada

Kothagudem: The State government has been moving forward with sincerity to solve the podu lands issue across the State, stated Transport Minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, keeping his promise made to podu farmers, has taken a bold decision to permanently solve the long-standing podu lands problem by issuing Go 140. The Chief Minister’s announcement had given courage to the tribals who were waiting for pattas, the minister said.

Ajay Kumar attended the district coordination committee meeting on podu land issues through video conference from Hyderabad on Tuesday. He informed that there was an extent of 10.13 lakh acres of forest land in the district and of that 1.29 lakh acres of land was under encroachment.

Concerned officials have to make field level visits in coordination with each other to collect habitation-wise details of claims by podu farmers. It was a happy development that the podu lands issue would permanently be resolved and schemes like Rythu Bandhu and Rythu Bima would be extended to the tribals after the formation of separate Telangana, the minister said.

He noted that traditional forest dwellers love forests, their culture was linked with forests and the government would protect their rights.



But the problem lies with outsiders who were encroaching the forest lands, cutting down the forests for their selfishness and it would not be allowed anymore.

Ajay Kumar made it clear that the government would initiate strict measures for the protection of forest lands soon after the problem of podu lands was solved. The officials concerned should also make committed efforts to prevent forest encroachment in future.

Government whip R Kantha Rao said that pattas were not being issued to podu farmers whose possession of land was recognised under ST and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers Recognition of Forest Rights (ROFR) Act due to objections from forest officials and it needs to be addressed.

MLC Tata Madhusudan suggested that the public should be educated about the importance of GO 140. ZP Chairperson K Kanakaiah wanted every eligible podu farmers given pattas and to train the staff for carrying out field level inspections effectively.

District Collector Anudeep D informed that in November, 2021 applications have been received in 726 habitations in 332 gram panchayats. In all 83, 663 applications were received from podu farmers in five Assembly constituencies in the district.