Government facing hurdles to acquire land

Hyderabad: With the land prices shooting up in the periphery of all new and upcoming irrigation projects, the State government is finding it difficult to acquire land for distribution of three acres to persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes. The Telangana Scheduled Caste Co-operative Finance Corporation (TSSCC) has so been able to acquire 1,500 acres only out of 10,000 acres targeted to be secured.

According to sources, the Land Purchase Scheme (LPS) has been facing many hurdles. The land value in Khammam district is more than Rs 10 lakh an acre, while the government earmarked between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 7 lakh per acre.

Finding land at one place is another obstacle in the way of implementing the LPS. The LPS cannot be compared with the the land acquisition for projects, said the source. The Dalit Bahujana Resource Centre (DBRC) Pada Yatra claimed to have found that only a limited number of households had received land from government. A tiny portion of the land was purchased and distributed by the Scheduled Caste Corporation, but the land was not fit for cultivation unless it is developed and made fit for cultivation.

P Shankar, State secretary of the Dalit Bahujan Front, wondered as to why the government, which is able to get land for irrigation projects, is not able to get the land for LPS scheme. “There is a lot of corruption in LPS. The recent suicide attempt by two Dalits in Gudem village under Bejjanki mandal in Siddipet district illustrated the problem. It is a gross negligence of government in distributing the land,” he said.

Skylab Babu, State General Secretary of Kula Vivaksha Porata Samithi (KVPS), said government was taking away Dalits’ lands for the industries and other purposes, but was not distributing three acres land to them. He said, “The LPS has plenty of loopholes. The officials paid Rs 7 lakh for the land worth only Rs 5 lakh. In the name of lottery, the MLAs are selecting their followers to get the benefits.”