SCCL land regularisation: Residents in Telangana’s Kothagudem, Yellandu want GO issued

The time limit to receive the applications under the third phase regularisation ended on June 30, 2023

Kothagudem: The negligent attitude of the Congress government towards regularisation of Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) lands has been troubling a large number of residents in Kothagudem and Yellandu municipalities.

The issue has been pending for the last one and a half years even as Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy and two other key Ministers – Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and Tummala Nageswara Rao – belong to erstwhile Khammam district.

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The time limit to receive the applications under the third phase regularisation ended on June 30, 2023 with a cutoff date of June 2, 2020 for possession/encroachment of the said lands. The processing of applications received under the third phase was put on hold as Assembly election code came into effect in October, 2023. But there has been no progress thereafter.

It might be noted that the previous BRS government had issued GO 76 in August 2019 with a cutoff date of June, 2, 2014 in view of long pending demand of locals who were living unauthorisedly on SCCL lands that were handed over to the State government and wanted the lands regularised.

It benefitted a large number of residents in Kothagudem, Bhupalpally, Asifabad, Adilabad, Mancherial and Peddapalli districts as the lands were regularised in two phases. A similar exercise was done during the YSR government in 2007 by issuing GO 373.

As many as 2,241 and 1,562 applications submitted in the third phase regularisation have been pending in Kothagudem and Yellandu municipalities respectively. In Kothagudem, pattas to 10 applicants were issued from 2,241 applications while in Yellandu, pattas were issued to 148 applicants out of the 1,786 applications.

The government’s negligence has also been costing the exchequer as the government could earn income through the regularisation of the lands. Lack of pattas has been holding back the residents from selling or buying the lands, said a resident G Santhosh Reddy of Barleypit area.

Former municipal chairperson K Seethalakshmi and Kothagudem MLA K Sambasiva Rao have appealed to the government to issue a GO enabling the processing of pending applications, but in vain. The residents want the government to issue a GO forthwith for the regularisation of pending applications.