Telangana People’s Land Manifesto

• Give land to the 25 lakh rural landless households, especially SCs and STs
• Give Homesteads to 6 lakh rural homeless households
• Give patta and secured rights to 20 lakh farmers
• Update land records and make them accessible to people
• Re-survey the lands
• Make the land administration effective and efficient
• Establish one Land Rights and Legal Assistance Centers at every revenue divisional headquarter to provide needed assistance to the poor in getting their land problems resolved
• Give land rights to 35 lakh rural women.
• Restore the lakhs of acres of alienated assigned and tribal land.
• Issue Loan Eligibility Cards to 4 lakh tenant farmer and provide them crop loans

1. Land to the landless rural poor

Various studies suggest that about fifty percent of rural households in Telangana are landless. Which means that about 25 lakh rural households (approximately 1 crore people) have no land to cultivate. Majority of them belong to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other marginalized groups. Providing a small piece of land can enable them to come out of poverty.

State Government should take immediate steps to distribute all the available lands including government, ceiling surplus, bhoodan and un-utilised acquired lands. Strictly enforce existing laws which can make more land available to the poor. Further, State Government should allot funds to Women Self Help Groups to purchase lands for all the poorest women members in their groups.

2. Homestead to the homeless rural poor

It’s estimated that about 6 lakh rural households in Telangana have no house of their own. They could not even take the benefits under rural housing programmes as they do not have land to build their houses. A house of one’s own is a basic human right and a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution of India.

Government should allot 4 guntas (10 cents) to each poor landless and homeless family to build a shelter and take up supplementary livelihood activities such as backyard poultry, goat-rearing, horticulture and vegetable cultivation. Government of India committed funds to states for purchasing homestead land for the poor under Indira Awas Yojana (IAY).

3. Patta with secured rights to the landowners and to those who have legitimate claim over land

At least forty percent of farmers have insecure land rights in Telangana. About ten lakh poor people who have purchased small pieces of agricultural land through un-registered/plain paper transactions (Sada Bainama) but do not have patta; thousands of people who have inherited land do not have patta in their name as mutations have not been taking place regularly; about one lakh inam lands are not yet settled; thousands of poor are cultivating land in forest revenue boundary disputed areas; thousands of people are cultivating land in so called “ Deemed forest” (unsettled forests) areas; and thousands of tribal and other traditional forest dwellers either did not receive title under the Forest Rights Act or there are errors/mistakes/discrepancies in the titles issued to them; and thousand poor are cultivating government / farrari patta / ghatt number / billa number lands.

The State Government should take immediate steps to

• Extend the date for receiving application for regularization of sada bainamas and issue patta. Further, Government should exempt the regularization fee for at least SCs, STs and women. Government should also extend the cut-off date from 2000 to 2010.
• Carryout mutations in land records and issue patta to all who have inherited land
• Settle all the inam lands
• Settle forest revenue boundary disputes and issue patta under revenue laws or title under the Forest Rights Act to the poor who are in cultivation of those lands
• Complete forest settlement process
• Issue titles to tribals and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers under Forest Rights Act. Rectify errors/mistakes/discrepancies in the titles. Issue titles to community forest resources.
• Issue patta to eligible people who are in cultivation of government / farrari patta / ghatt number / billa number lands.

4. Updated and accessible land records

Majority of entries in all the land records do not reflect the field reality. Many times, names of the pattadars and cultivators are not entered in revenue records. Further, there are many errors / mistakes / discrepancies in the revenue records. People are facing many hardships due to non-update land records. They are being deprived of many benefits due to them as farmers.

The State Government should take immediate steps to update all the land records and make it accessible to all. Further, Government should regularly take up Azmoishi and Zamabandi.

5. Re-survey

The major bottleneck in resolving any land problem and the root cause for many land problems is the lack of proper survey and survey records. Law requires that re-survey should be done after every 30 years but the last survey in Telangana was done in 1940’s. Most of the survey records (village maps and tippans) are in brittle condition.

The State Government should take urgent steps to re-survey all agricultural lands with the involvement of local people.

6. Effective and efficient land administration system

Revenue department which deals with land administration has neither the time nor the required capacities for administering land. There is acute shortage of revenue staff at all levels. Thousands of land petitions are pending in various revenue offices.

The State Government should recruit sufficient number of revenue staff at all levels, build their capacities and make them accountable on land matters. Appoint one Village Revenue Officers (VRO) to each revenue village and ensure that VRO stays in the village where s/he is appointed. Ensure that required numbers of women are recruited. Provide necessary budgetary support to the revenue department.