Mahbubnagar: Palamuru Dalits likely to get 3 acres of land soon

Mahbubnagar: With the committee headed by Joint Collector proposed new rules for the procurement of land from farmers to be distributed to the landless Dalits in Mahbubnagar, it is expected that the poor landless Dalits will be soon distributed 3 acres of land to each family.

According to sources from the SC Welfare Corporation in Mahbubnagar, earlier, the State government's much-hyped and highly-publicised scheme of distribution of 3 acres land to landless Dalits was put on hold due to the problems of land acquisition.

"As per the earlier government regulations, the government has given a mandate of procuring land from farmers at the rate of Rs 2 lakh to Rs 7 lakh per acre and this variance of land rate depends on the availability of water sources, power and condition of land.

However, the farmers have expressed their discontent over the low rate of lands which was more than 100 per cent less to the existing market rates and no farmer came forward to give away their valuable land for the government's programme. And this led to halting of the prestigious land distribution scheme in the past six years.

However, as the committee headed by Joint Collector of Mahbubnagar has proposed new land acquisition rules, it is expected the farmers might get good returns for their land and by end of March this year, the SC Corporation will be ready with adequate amount of land to be distributed to the SCs in the district," observed a senior official from SC Corporation on condition of anonymity.

At present, the land value in the open market varies anywhere from Rs 7.5 lakh to 15 lakh per acre on the outskirts, while the same in the prime areas is costing from Rs 20 lakh to over 1 crore in Mahbubnagar district. However, it is expected that as per the new proposals, the farmers may get anywhere between Rs 7 to 15 lakh under land acquisition programme by the government and this may encourage more farmers to give away their land for the land distribution scheme.

Earlier, in Mahbubnagar district, only about 150 acres of land was earmarked to be distributed to SCs in the year 2014-15. However, as there were more number of applicants and the land available was just not enough to be distributed, the district authorities halted the process and set up a committee with Joint Collector to come out with new proposals to acquire adequate land for the land distribution scheme of the government.

After 3-4 years of study by the committee, now new proposals have been finalised and got the approval from the government. Now, very soon the landless poor SCs are expected to be distributed 3 acres of land by the SC Corporation.

"We have already toured all the mandals of the district to identify the land for the land distribution scheme and have prepared a detailed report as to how much land we need and how many beneficiaries' are there in each mandal. Based on that, we will be finalising the list of land distribution beneficiaries' in each mandal. Hopefully by end of March, we might get a clear picture after which we will go ahead with the land distribution process," informed Perike Yadaiah, Executive Director of SC corporation, Mahbubnagar district.