As the special drive to distribute the new pattadaar passbooks and cheques to beneficiaries under the Rythu Bandhu scheme continued for the fifth day on Tuesday, complaints about alleged mistakes in the newly issued pattadar passbooks continue to pour in from several farmers in Aswaraopeta, Wyra, Chintakani and various other mandals in the erstwhile undivided Khammam district.
In Aswaraopeta, wrongly spelled names and incorrect details about the land holdings among other errors reportedly cropped in the new pattadaar passbooks issued to several farmers in Narayanapuram and various revenue villages in the mandal.
The surname of Venkataramana of Narayanapuram was wrongly printed and the land holdings of many farmers in the mandal recorded were much less than their actual holdings, sources said.
The authorities reportedly kept in abeyance distribution of as many as 26 cheques after the beneficiaries reportedly complained about sanction of less amount to them, disproportionate to their actual land holdings. In sharp contrast, the staff concerned noticed the cheque amount exceeding the original agricultural lands some of the beneficiaries actually hold, sources added.
In Musalimadugu revenue village in Wyra mandal of Khammam, over 50 pattadaar passbooks issued to beneficiaries contained incorrect details about individual farmers, pointed out Telangana Rythu Sangham State leader Bonthu Rambabu.
The errors in the much-publicised tamper-proof passbooks exposes lack of coordination between the government agencies and departments concerned, he said. The mistakes in the passbooks must be rectified and the investment support should be extended to all the actual tillers, including the tenant farmers, to bail out the real cultivators from the vicious cycle of rural indebtedness, he demanded.
Aswraopeta tahsildar Y. Venkateshwarlu said 8,204 cheques have been sanctioned to the mandal under Rythu Bandhu so far. Of these, over 5,400 cheques have already been distributed to the beneficiaries till Tuesday.
Efforts are on to distribute the cheques to all the eligible beneficiaries soon, he said, asserting that wrong entries found in the pattadaar passbooks will be rectified and the records will be updated on the land bank website “Dharani” shortly.
Large-scale irregularities
CPI (M) district secretary G. Mukund Reddy has alleged large-scale irregularities in the land purification works, saying that the state government encouraged corruption among the revenue officials involved in the process. In a press note, he pointed out incidences of spelling mistakes in pattadaar passbooks. He also alleged that the authorities had committed mistakes in the identification of actual lands of the beneficiaries. The land purification works had only encouraged rampant corruption by revenue officials, he alleged.
