The State government will start receiving claims for assignment of podu lands from the third week of this month, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has said.
Indicating that the government had resolved to end the ongoing struggle by tribals for podu lands, the Chief Minister said the government would seek claims from all the eligible and ensure that land available with it was assigned to tribes. Committees headed by MLAs would be constituted in all the districts to redress podu land issue and respective MLAs should take the responsibility for selecting the eligible beneficiaries in a transparent manner.
Replying to a debate on Dalit Bandhu which came up as short discussion in the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday, the Chief Minister however asserted that encroachment of forest lands should also be looked into in the process. The government could allot some lands under its purview without seeking the Central government’s nod, but a pledge should be taken to ensure that forests were not damaged forthwith.
Committees should be formed at village-level for protection of forests and undertaking should be obtained from the beneficiaries that they would not extend their operations beyond a certain demarcated area.
Infrastructure development
The Chief Minister announced that the State government would soon take up programme for providing basic amenities in all the Dalit and tribal habitations across the State. The Scheduled Castes and Tribal Welfare departments had been asked to prepare an action plan in this regard and it would be submitted to the government soon.
Funds for providing all the necessary infrastructure would be earmarked and the programme would be taken up in a phased manner, he said.
Recruitment drive soon
He said the government had convinced Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow implementation of 95 % reservation for locals in recruitments for government jobs under the new zonal system. Recruitment would be taken up on the basis of the new zonal system once the staffing pattern in the village, mandal and district levels was finalized.
“The process is likely to be completed in two months. There is scope for creation of 70,000 to 80,000 jobs at the local level,” he said. The government had so far notified 1.51 lakh jobs so far, of which, recruitments were made to 1.32 lakh posts. The government would circulate the information pertaining to the recruitments in the ongoing monsoon session of the Legislature.
