HYDERABAD: Chief Secretary SK Joshi directed District Collectors in the State to send details of persons aged between 57 and 64 to the Panchayat Raj Commissioner within three days, so that the government may identify new beneficiaries of the Aasara pensions scheme.
Joshi on Thursday held a video conference with Collectors from the Secretariat, holding discussions with them on various issues such as Aasara pensions, construction of individual toilets and upcoming Panchayat Raj elections.
The Chief Secretary said that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has directed the officials to sanction new Aasara pensions from April 1 and the Collectors needed to prepare their list of beneficiaries according to latest electoral rolls.
Joshi said that the detailed guidelines on providing reservations to SC, ST and BCs for Panchayat elections had been sent to Collectors.
The Chief Secretary later informed the officials that the Chief Minister had accorded top priority for the construction of national highways and railway lines and wanted them to complete land acquisition at the earliest.
Roads and Buildings principal secretary Sunil Sarma directed the Collectors to complete the land acquisition by January/February, 2019 for NHAI projects in various districts.
Forest lands to be surveyed
Joshi said that the government would send Special Task Force teams to forest districts and conduct a survey on forest lands. Forest Special Chief Secretary Ajay Misra said that there was a need to reconcile 22 lakh acres of forest lands with revenue records in some districts. The forest land that will be identified by surveyors will be classified as forest land in revenue records there on, Misra said.