Special drive to regularise Dotted Lands: Deputy Chief Minister

Amaravati: Deputy Chief Minister and revenue minister K E Krishna Murthy said the revenue department would conduct a special drive to resolve the long-pending issue of regularisation of ‘Dotted Lands’ listed under 22-A of Revenue Act from June 13 in all districts.

Speaking to reporters at the Secretariat on Wednesday, Krishna Murthy said the government was very serious over the delay in regularisation of dotted lands though a Government Orders had also been issued 10 months ago. He said the district collectors were given orders not to entrust any work to revenue officials and staff other than works related to revenue department.

He said the revenue department received 60,164 applications from 13 districts over the regularisation of dotted lands and added 24 lakh dotted lands were identified across the state. The lands identified under 22-A category were not eligible for registrations, the minister said and added district-level and state-level committees would be formed to resolve the dotted lands issue.

“In first stage, village-level meetings will be conducted in which non-controversial applications of farmers over dotted lands will be resolved. Revenue, endowment, municipal, forest, survey and registrations department should work with coordination to resolve the dotted lands issue,” he said.

Krishna Murthy also said people can submit their application at Gram Sabha and apply to chief commissioner of land administration (CCLA) within 90 days if they have any objections over the decisions of district committees, he added. “From now onwards, the revenue department has been given clear instructions that the land owner must be given information and invite objections from them if the revenue department plans to list any land under 22-A category,” the minister said.

Krishna Murthy said the government was also considering a proposal that all the lands that were assigned before 1954 should be removed from 22-A list. He expressed satisfaction over the President giving his nod for AP Land Acquisition (Amendment) Act-2017 and said the farmers need not worry about the amendment Act as the government would offer best compensation to them before acquisition of their lands. 

The AP Capital Region Development Authority would take a decision on acquisition of lands in the capital city area as per Land Acquisition Act, he pointed out. CCLA Anil Chandra Punetha and special chief commissioner for revenue department Manmohan Singh participated.