Revenue Minister N. Raghuveera Reddy has instructed revenue officials to book criminal cases against those who were trying to sell government land after making them into unauthorised layouts. The Minister was addressing the revenue officials, including collectors and joint-collectors from seven coastal districts, at the regional revenue conference held at the A Convention Hall here on Tuesday.
After a discussion on land management, the Minister asked the revenue officials not to remain as ‘mere spectators’ when it came to unauthorised layouts on government land. He said protection of the government land should be given utmost importance. When a Tahsildar was transferred “he should not only handover the records, but also the land physically,” Mr Reddy said.
The Minister said it was most unfortunate that some police officers were giving revenue officials a very hard time.
In one incident the police ignored the case filed by the Tahsildar and booked the case filed by the real estate agent. The Minister said he was soon going to have a high-level meeting with the Home Minister, the Principal Secretary for Home, the Chief Commissioner of Land Administration and the Director General of Police and ensure that instructions were issued to all SPs. He said the police should take the permission of the District Collector before taking any action against Tahsildars. These orders already existed, but steps would be taken to ensure that clear instructions were sent to all the SPs.
Land distribution
The Minister said that at the end of the sixth phase of land distribution, 7.82 lakh acres were distributed to the poor. In the seventh and final round of land distribution “every inch of arable land” would be distributed to the poor.
Minister for Secondary Education Kolusu Parthasarathy said that unauthorised layouts were coming up in assigned lands. Those developing the unauthorised layouts were filling up the existing drains and converting them into roads. And when the rain comes all surround areas were becoming water-logged.
Chief Commissioner for Land Administration (CCLA) P.K. Mohanty, Principal Secretary for Revenue B.R. Meena explained to revenue officials of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, East Godavari, West Godavari, Guntur and Krishna about various items on the agenda including land management, land protection, implementation of Koneru Ranga Rao Committee recommendations and finally revenue administration.
