MAHBUBNAGAR: The Telangana government’s programme of allotting three acres of land to poor Dalits families is going on at a snail’s pace in the district. The district administration has failed to achieve the target set for the last year. The officials attributed the delay to various reasons including non-availability of suitable land.
“We are not able to get suitable land for distribution. Even if we get a suitable piece of land in any area of the district, the rates are very high and cannot be afforded by the state government as there is a cap on the amount to be spent on each acre of the land,” said an official. On the other hand, there are also allegations that the officials are too busy to focus on the implementation of the scheme.
He stated that they are neither holding any review meetings nor conducting field visits to identify the lands. Even as the scheme is going on at the snail’s pace, the officials have got the target for the ongoing financial year .
The target has been fixed as 595.25 acres for this year. Last year the target was fixed at 279 acres of land. Of this, only 145.15 crore has been bought by the officials by spending `6.16 crore . The land purchased was distributed to 49 beneficiaries of the district. The officials have not yet completed the distribution of the remaining 133.25 acres of the land.
For the ongoing financial year, 198 beneficiaries have been identified for the distribution of the 595.25 acres of land. Of the total target, the balance target of the last year 133.25 was included in this year’s target. The farmers from the district have sent proposals to the SC welfare department to sell their 914.16 acres of land.
The mining department of the state has completed the survey of 522 acres of land so far. Mahbubnagar district joint collector Siva Kumar Naidu also took part in the survey programme. Commenting on the issue, district deputy director, social welfare department Vijay Kumar told Express that they would take all steps to achieve the target this year.
“We will try to buy at least 400 acres of land by the end of this year. We will also go into the field and buy suitable land if they were in our budget. We will achieve the target of this year by the end of the ongoing financial year ,” he said.