Tirupati: Decades-long Settipalli land issue resolved

Tirupati: The decades-long pending Settipalli land issue was at last resolved with the issuing of proceedings to the land owners, confirming their rights on the lands under their enjoyment.

City MLA and TTD chairman Bhumana Karunakar Reddy along with district Collector K Venkataramana Reddy and Deputy Mayor Bhumana Abhinay Reddy distributed the proceedings issued in favour of the land owners at a meeting in Settipalli on the city outskirts on Thursday. In the first phase, proceedings were issued to about 5,000 land owners

including farmers and those purchased sites in the layout developed in the lands in Settipalli village, covering 636 acres including agriculture lands, CRS (Railways) lands, private and other categories. Issuing of proceedings to the beneficiaries, who purchased lands in 12 more layouts is under process.

MLA Karunakar Reddy said the credit for resolving the 75 year long land issue benefitting about 5,000 people, who belong to mostly poor and lower middle class groups, approached Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, who was keen on settling the land issue and directed the State and district officials to solve the problem at the earliest. It is noteworthy that such a serious issue was resolved in a transparent manner without giving scope for criticism and totally free of cost as the beneficiaries didn’t paid even a single rupee for the official process for the issuance of proceedings, he claimed.

MLA Bhumana said, “The settlement of Settipalli land issue gave me immense satisfaction, which remained a tough nut to crack all these years,” and lauded Collector K Venkataramana Reddy and his team of revenue officials and corporation Deputy Mayor Abhinay Reddy for their tireless efforts to close the issue. He assured that land issue of Varadaraja Nagar and Raghavendra Nagar in the city also would be taken up soon to protect the interests of the residents with own houses in the two colonies and added that the YSRCP government is second to none in solving public issues. Karunakar Reddy said after Settipalli merged in the Tirupati Municipal Corporation, development works were taken up on a massive scale.

It may be noted here that Settipalli land issue remained unsolved despite many trials by the revenue department in vain while political parties held various agitations pressing the government to settle the issue.