Dalits waiting for KCR promise on land distribution

Fresh after tasting success in the form of achieving statehood for Telangana and later in the assembly elections in 2014, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has announced on Independence Day that year that his government would launch an ambitious land redistribution programme to ensure social and economic justice to the State’s Dalits.

Rao had said that, as part of the ‘Land Purchase Scheme’, each economically backward Dalit family in Telangana would be allotted three acres of land, and that they would be connected given water supply in less than a year after that.

After the announcement, Rao was praised and hailed for being ‘pro-Dalit’.  However, after four years, when the dust has finally settled, reality seems to have its own story to tell.

Warangal

No allotment since districts reorganisation

In erstwhile Warangal district, 450 beneficiaries were allotted lands. However, this was only till October 11, 2016 - the day when districts were officially reorganised in Telangana.

Since then, not a single Dalit family has received any land.  Executive director of the district branch of SC Cooperative Finance Corporation said that since 2014, around 1400 acres of land, at a cost of `66 crore, was acquired.

The corporation was able to acquire only 70 acres of land in two fiscal years of 2016-17 and 2017-18.

Since then the district administration has managed to identify 278 acres for possible acquisition, but it seems unlikely that there will be much progress in that front. The corporation is mandated to buy each acre of land at a price between Rs 2 and Rs 7 lakh, while an acre of land at some places in Warangal can cost as much as Rs 15 lakh. Most farmers are hence not willing to part with their land.Somehow this hasn’t dampened the corporation’s spirits who say that they are waiting for the government’s signal for beginning the distribution of whatever land they had available.

Kamareddy

3% out-turn fails to faze officials

Kamareddy has not had better results either. The SC Corporation had fixed an acquisition target of 250 acres for the current fiscal year but the district officials have managed to purchase a mere 7 acres till now - less than 3 per cent of the target.

However, officials remain unfazed and claim that they can reach the target in the coming months. Speaking to Express, SC Corporation Executive Officer(EO) G Balaiah said that, after the formation of Kamareddy district in 2016, 1,154 acres of land had been acquired in the 22 mandals at a cost of `51,82 crore. The department has been able to distribute land to 496 beneficiaries.

Officials said that they were providing financial aid to the beneficiaries for building borewells and other capital intensive works. `1.56 crore has been sanctioned for drilling 136 borewells, out of which 36 have been drilled till now.

Adilabad

fficials blame land purification exercise

In erstwhile Adilabad district, between 2014-15 and 2018-19, around 2,483 acres of land has been distributed among 934 beneficiaries.

In the post district-reorganisation era, 532 beneficiaries are from Adilabad constituency who have received 1,367 acres and 232 beneficiaries are from Nirmal district who have received 686 acres.  Here, officials have a different reason for the slow progress.

They say that the land purification scheme, a statewide programme conducted for correcting land records, has delayed land acquisition. A corporation official told Express that they had identified some lands and were verifying the details before moving ahead.

Sangareddy

Acquisitions  unfeasible as land prices rise

The State government’s scheme seems to have been defeated by simple economics. As mentioned elsewhere, the rise in land prices in Sangareddy have been a major obstacle for the Land Purchase Scheme’s implementation here as well.  

In Sangareddy, Medak, Siddipet, Gajwel, Narsapur, Zahirabad, Sadasivpet, Ramayampet and other towns, agricultural land costs between `10-20 lakh, forcing the officials to wonder how they could purchase it at the rate mandated by the government. They have managed to distribute only around 1000 acres in the last four years.

The situation in Siddipet district is not much of an aberration. Officials told Express that they had distributed 335 acres of land to 158 beneficiaries. “Most farmers who had agreed to sell their lands at some point backed out due to a sudden rise in land prices,” an official said. The situation is worse in Gajwel and Husnabad mandals compared to Siddipet revenue division, similar to Medak district.

SC Corporation ED Devaiah had an interesting view regarding the price rise of land.

“After the districts reorganisation,  lands near the new headquarters became more valuable. Most farmers who own lands inside a radius of 40 km from the headquarters do not wish to sell since the prices have shot up,” he said.

He added that they were looking towards places away from the headquarters now. “We are acquiring lands away from district headquarters for distributing to Dalit families. Also, some people with lands near Kaleshwaram project are reluctant to sell,” he said.

Sangareddy SC Corporation ED, D Baburao said that they were prescribed a target of 500 acres last year, but they were unable to achieve it.  He said that the scheme was a success in places like Narayanakhed where the land prices were relatively less compared to other areas in erstwhile Sangareddy.