18,295 applications submitted for podu land rights in Khammam

Khammam: The State government has been making efforts to protect forests while finding a permanent solution to the podu lands issue, Transport Minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar has said.

Speaking at a district level coordination committee meeting on podu lands under GO 140 here on Friday, the Minister said there were 1,57,531 acres of forest area (14.61 percent) in Khammam district. The ITDA, revenue and forest departments should carry out a joint survey in coordination to issue pattas to podu farmers. As many as 6143 RoFR titles were distributed for 17681.43 acres of podu lands in Khammam district so far.

As many as 18,295 applications were submitted in respect of 42,409 acres of podu lands in 132 habitations of 94 gram panchayats in 10 mandals in the district. Village level meetings have to be conducted to resolve the claims related to tribals and non-tribals and registers should be maintained properly.

A digital survey should also be done using GPS technology and satellite maps to scientifically ascertain the details of podu cultivation and to fix boundaries of podu lands. RoFR titles would be given to genuine tribal and non-tribal podu cultivators, he said.

The Minister also told forest and revenue officials to make sure not a single inch of forest land would be encroached in future in the district.
MPs Nama Nageswara Rao, Vaddviraju Ravichandra, MLC Tata Madhusudhan and CLP leader Bhatti Vikramarka also spoke.