Government will resolve inter-state border dispute soon: Minister

Hyderabad: Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy on Thursday said that the government would take up the land disputes at the State borders with the neighbouring States and take up demarcations.

The Revenue Minister said that the Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy has already talked to the Chief Secretary of Karnataka on the land disputes in the bordering districts, and once the issue gets solved, the data would be included in the Bhu Bharati. The Minister was replying to a question raised by Congress member Madan Mohan Rao, who wanted to know whether any survey was conducted regarding the issue of agricultural lands sharing borders with forest lands, which was often a contentious issue between the tribals and the forest department.

Srinivas Reddy said that there was no such proposal for the survey. However, he said that the issue of disputes between the forest and tribals was existing in 35 constituencies. He asked the MLAs to give applications regarding this on their letterheads. He disclosed that already CM Revanth Reddy and Forest Minister Konda Surekha had discussions on this. He said that there should be 890 surveyors in the State as per the area, but presently there are only 240 surveyors. He said that in a month or two, 1,000 more surveyors would be added, and based on the size of the mandal, the surveyors would be appointed.

In another question raised by BJP member Payal Shankar about pending applications from the Collector to CCLA, the Minister said that there were no pending applications. Payal Shankar pointed out that there was a clause in the RoR Bill that till the tribunal is formed, the CCLA will be the authority for making appeals. He recalled that the farmers were tortured to sell their lands at lesser prices and threatened that their lands would be included in prohibited list. He urged the minister to allow for solving the issues at the level of the collector. There is another provision that cases should not be filed against the official, which should be removed. BRS member G Kamalakar said that the DM 33 module applications should be cleared by the collectors, but they were also sent to CCLA, causing hardships to the farmers.

Replying to this, the Minister said that what all the members said were naked truths and added that after passing the Bill the government would go to the people to solve their problems.