AP CM hands over land deeds to 108 poor families

Kadapa (Andhra Pradesh), Feb 7: Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy today handed over the title deeds for the lands surrendered by him to 108 families, including 106 of those belonging to Scheduled Tribe, in Chinarayasamudram, Reddivarpalli and Tirnampalli villages in this district.

The Chief Minister handed over the Pattas to 83 families in Chinnarayasamudrum ST colony, 19 at Reddyvaripalli, four at Tirunampalli and one each Backward caste and other caste families for 2.60 acres to an extent of 310 acres.

In all, the Chief Minister's family had donated 997 acres of lands in Konduru village for distribution to the poor.

The lands were originally given to Rao Sahib Raghava Reddy in 1940 by then British government by way of settlement patta which subsequently came to be owned by Madras Forest Plantation India Company Limited belonging to Dr Reddy's family through secondary and tertiary deals, Kadapa District Collector M T Krishna Babu told visiting reporters.

The Chief Minister had also donated 321 acres of land in Vempally, which would go to the Vemana University for setting up a 21 century Gurukulam. Of the total 4.6 lakh assigned lands in the district, 4,000 acres were in possession of others and notices had already been served to 120 individuals and some of them had moved courts.

These lands do not come under the Land Ceiling Act as they were unfit for agriculture. However, the Chief Minister's family raised plantations like teak, neem and tamarind trees on 170 acres of land while the remaining 517 acres were hillocks which would be developed later, he added.

Of the 997 acres of land, individual pattas for 310 acres had been given, the District Collector said, adding the remaining land with plantations would be made a community property with a ten-member committee constituted by the ST families for overlooking its development and maintenance. The proceeds of the plantations would be equally distributed among ST families.

All the ST families belonged to Yanadi community and working as agricultural labourers. The individual pattas were given in the name of women members of the family. All the ST families, who received pattas, expresserd their happiness over the Chief Minister's generous gesture. The Sarpanch of Chinnarayasamudram T Tirupathayya said, ''we will protect the lands given by the Chief Minister and start farming in the lands to improve our economic conditions.''

Beneficiaries K Eswaramma, K Kalpana, Mallika Jayamma said, ''it is in our welfare that the land is given to us and this will change our economic condition in future. We will not sell these lands to anyone and strive hard to develop the lands.'' They said the government had sanctioned houses to all the ST families in Chinnarayasamudrum under INDIRAMMA scheme.

Dr Reddy declared that as only the poor have a right over these lands, his family has handed over the holdings to the government to be distributed among the landless poor. The modified assigned lands Act was also strictly being enforced to identify all such illegal land holding and notices have been served on several people.

Altogether more than five lakh acres of land have so far been distributed to the landless poor. The government had also launched Indira Kranti Pathakam with Rs 500 crore to improve the soil quality, he added.

In the process of ushering in Indiramma Rajyam, as promised by the party, the State Government launched the first phase of land distribution to the landless poor from Mahabubnagar district.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh handed over pattas to the landless in Medak district in the second round while the third phase was launched in Anantapur.

AICC General Secretary and incharge of Andhra Affairs Digvijay Singh, State PCC President K Keshava Rao and several party leaders participated in the function.

UNI