Facts, figures look fudged

Three acre cultivable land to Dalits scheme

Hyderabad: The ‘much hyped’ flagship programme of Telangana Government -Three acre land distribution to landless Dalits and SCs is moving at a ‘snail’s pace’ and there is lot of discrepancy in what the government claims and the performance at the ground level.

The scheme launched by Telangana Government on August 15, 2014, was the main focus for the annual action plan under SC Sub Plan (SCSP). The government in its budget speech for 2014-15 said that it had taken a path breaking policy decision to provide three acres of cultivable land to each landless SC family, develop the same with irrigation and provide the total cost of cultivation for first one year as a grant.

In the next phase, SC households holding less than 3 acres of land will be provided the balance extent of land. An amount of Rs 1000 crore has been proposed for this scheme. The Government is committed to provide Rs 50,000 crore over a five year period, it said.

In 2015-16 budget also the government said that district collectors have been authorised to purchase land suitable for cultivation at a cost ranging from Rs 2 lakh per acre to Rs 7 lakh per acre in all the districts of the State with exception of Hyderabad. It further said that till January 2015 end; a total of 1,132 acres of private and 270 acres of government land has been sanctioned covering 525 beneficiaries.

The government said efforts will be made to intensify the scheme of land purchase during the year for which a provision of Rs 1000 crore has been made. However, according to information given by B Jayaraj Vice Chairman and Managing Director Telangana SC Cooperative Development Corporation Ltd, in response to a RTI query by M Srinivas secretary Greater Hyderabad CPI (M) committee, the government has already sanctioned and released Rs 18,947.97 crore to the district collectors towards implementation of Land Purchase Scheme.

As on June 30 2015, a total of 2973.32 acres of which 269.34 acres is government land and 2703.38 acres of private land has been distributed to 1112 beneficiaries at a cost of Rs 111.16 crore. The highest number of beneficiaries – 270 (out of 1112) have been from the Chief minister’s native district Medak , followed by Adilabad (230), Karimnagar (153), Nalgonda (139), Nizamabad (104), Warangal (93) , Mahbubnagar (79 ) and Khammam and Ranga Reddy districts occupied last position with 22 beneficiaries each.

Surprisingly, government did not identify even a single acre of government land in Khammam and Mahbubngar districts for the purpose. In Ranga Reddy district, only 2 acres of government land was acquired and given to the beneficiaries. The highest cost incurred for the purchase of land was in Medak district where the authorities spent Rs 20.39 crore. In Khammam district, only Rs 87.36 lakh was spent for the purpose.

The average cost of the one acre land in Warangal district was Rs 5.61 lakh which was the highest among other districts. In Ranga Reddy district, only Rs 2.75 lakh was paid for each acre. According to available data there are about 3 lakh landless SC families and if the government has to give three acres per family it would require about 9 lakh acres. Accordingly the scheme would cost Rs 50,000 crore.

The big question now is if the government had sanctioned Rs 18,947 crore as claimed by the VC and MD of Telangana SC Co-OP Development Corporation Ltd and if it has spent only Rs 111.16 crore then where has the balance money gone.