Staff crunch may hit land acquisition

Mahbubnagar: With the State government set the deadline for the land acquisition process to completed by April-end under all four major lift irrigation projects in the district, the district administration is making herculean efforts. But the staff crunch is coming in the way of completing the process.

According to district Collector T K Sridevi, despite of all odds, the district administration had been able to acquire more than 9,000 acres of land under various lift irrigation projects during the past eight months. “We are using all our lower cadre staff and officers wherever available to complete the land survey works and acquire land as fast as we can in the set target time.

However, we are facing shortage of staff in the Revenue and other departments which is also a cause of concern for us to reach our goals in time. The post of a Revenue Development Officer is vacant for last eight months and of 32 more posts in the Revenue Department remain vacant. However, we are pooling all our available resources to meet the target on time,” observed the Collector.

In tune with the State government’s aims, the district administration was taking all steps to provide water to 3.5 lakh acres during kharif. For this, the district Collector along with the Revenue and Irrigation Departments are reviewing the works on a continuous basis.

S K Joshi, Principal Secretary for Irrigation, visited Mahbubnagar on Monday and took stock of the development works, particularly the land acquisition activities under the lift irrigation projects in the district. Joshi directed the district Collector and officials to ensure that the land acquisition under all the four major lift irrigation projects is completed by end April.