AP to streamline Revenue Dept

Hyderabad: Zone-level Revenue Department meetings will be held in Andhra Pradesh to streamline the functioning of the department and to adopt a systematic way of extending its services.

Speaking at a press conference here on Monday, Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister (Revenue) K E Krishna Murthy said the first zonal-level meeting would be held in Anantapur on January 22, followed by another meeting on January 29 at Eluru. Similarly two more such meeting would be held in Guntur and Vizianagaram on February 4 and 11 respectively.

He said that district collectors, revenue divisional, mandal and village level officials and district development officials would attend the review meetings to stake stock of the functioning of the department and to make all levels of the department function in a systematic and planned manner.

Similarly, the Cabinet Sub Committee on land allocation as per the GO 571 would be meeting on January 19 to finalise the draft policy guidelines on allocation of lands to the government departments, corporations and private entities. Also, the government has decided to take back about 8,000 acres of land given to Lepakshi Knowledge Park in Anantapur district, following several irregularities being surfaced, he added.

Sending a strong message, the Deputy Chief Minister said that action had been initiated against 20 revenue officials, following reports of irregularities from Visakhapatnam and Guntur districts. He said an inquiry had been ordered into the allegations of land registrations being carried out without proper passbooks.

Responding to a query, he said decision would be taken on the regularisation of ‘Grama Kantam’ (village community lands) and houses built on these lands. All the issues would be put before Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu for his nod.