To give a boost to the Dalit Basti Scheme, the state
government has relaxed the norms regarding ‘availability of water sources’ (sufficient
ground water) which was must for land purchase under the scheme.
Few acres of land so far distributed to the Dalits
under this scheme. The revenue officials should purchase the lands only after
confirming that there was enough ground water to cultivate the land to be
distributed to the Dalits.
Till date,
the department of Ground Water would conduct tests on the lands to be purchased
for the Dalit Basti scheme and thus many lands were rejected due to lack of
ground water resulting from drought conditions in the last two years.
Collector M. Jagan Mohan said that state government
has given permission to the district to purchase land without taking the ground
water table into consideration as most of the crops in the district are rain
fed and ground water table doesn’t make much difference in cultivating these
crops.
There had been a slowdown in the implementation of
the Dalit Basti Scheme for a while as
there some irregularities in purchasing land in Mancherial and Sirpur (T)
Assembly Constituencies, said the collector, adding that some of the people had
hiked the land price to Rs 6 lakh per acre, which was actually purchased for Rs
3 land acre, before selling to the government.
So far, 673 acre purchased at Rs 22.8 crore, has
been distributed to 230 beneficiaries under Dalit Basti in the district.
It has come to light that some government land was
also purchased for the scheme as sellers and officials had colluded at some
places.
Officials concerned had rejected hundreds of acres
of land identified at various places based on reports given by Ground Water
department, stating that there was no availability of ground water sources. Now
2,000 acre of land has become available for purchase and distribution under
Dalit Basti in the Adilabad district.
The Ground Water department had cleared 1,026 acre by
the end of August for purchase in the district. Most land was purchased in
Jainad, Tasmi , Talamadugu, Bela, Kagaznagar, Bajarhatnoor, Kubheer, Kotapalli
and Sarangapoor mandals in the district.
Dalit leaders say that state government’s decision
to relaxed norms on availability of ground water to purchase lands may not be
serve the real purpose of the scheme aimed to distribute 3 acre of cultivable
land and taking the advantage of this officials may purchase barren lands for
Dalits at cheaper prices and hike the prices on paper.
Telangana SC Cooperative Finance Corporation vice- chairman
B. Jayaraj inspected the lands purchased in Kubheer mandal for Dalit Basti and
found them not useful for cultivation and also found irregularities in
purchasing those lands.
