The State government has ambitious plans to distribute house sites pattas to the eligible on Ugadi, the Telugu New Year day in 2020. The process of identification of government land available across the State is nearing completion.
The government has to pool land from private people wherever its land is not available.
According to highly placed sources, the government has identified as many as 11.34 lakh beneficiaries in rural areas. of this, East Godavari tops the list with 2,07,853 beneficiaries. West Godavari trails behind it with 1,17,711 beneficiaries as on December 24.
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Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts which are considered as backward districts are at the bottom of the pyramid with 45,289 and 35,959 beneficiaries respectively in rural areas. Similarly, in urban areas, the government has identified 11,00,385 beneficiaries. Visakhapatnam top the list with a total number of identified beneficiaries of 1,87,876. Guntur and Krishna follow it with 1,53,244 and 1,42,591 beneficiaries, sources say.
Land availability
An extent of 18,552 acres was available across the State to meet the requirements in rural areas. More than 7.15 lakh beneficiaries can be accommodated in the available land. The government will have to acquire 8,244 acres land. Similarly, more than 11 lakh beneficiaries were identified for TIDCO/house sites/group housing.
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Of this, 2.86 lakh would be accommodated in TIDCO housing schemes. Another 8.13 lakh beneficiaries have to be provided house sites or group housing. While 3,918 acres was available, the government would have to acquire 7,119 acres, the sources say. When contacted, Revenue Minister Pilli Subhash Chandra Bose said the government would have to spend ₹ 12,000 crore to ₹ 13,000 crore on purchasing the land from farmers/landowners. The land values are high in East and West Godavari, Krishna and Guntur districts compared to other districts.
The government was negotiating with the farmers so as to ensure no farmer suffered losses.