Andhra Pradesh land-title scheme covered too few poor families, CPI(M) says

CPI(M) State secretariat member Ch. Babu Rao has alleged that Andhra Pradesh’s ‘Pedalaku Pattabhishekam’ land-title programme benefited only a small proportion of poor families who needed support. Speaking to the media in Vijayawada, Babu Rao said the programme had been turned into an election campaign.

He claimed that of 26,401 beneficiaries announced for Vijayawada, only 2,586, or about 9%, were newly identified recipients. According to his account, the remaining beneficiaries had received land titles previously and were being issued documents again. He further alleged that the newly identified beneficiaries received information documents indicating eligibility rather than registered title deeds.

Babu Rao said thousands of poor families living along the Krishna river and canal bunds, railway land and about 50 other colonies had not received even such documents because their occupations were classified as objectionable encroachments. He claimed that about 20,000 people in the city were affected and that roughly 50,000 homeless poor people in Vijayawada and one lakh in NTR district had not been provided house sites. The source material did not include a response from the government to these claims.

The CPI(M) leader questioned the government’s claim that land worth ₹52,000 crore had been distributed and asked why properties had not earlier been registered or made eligible for loans. He demanded registered titles for all eligible beneficiaries before notification of local-body elections, along with at least ₹5 lakh in construction assistance. He also called for two cents of urban land and three cents in rural areas for homeless families, suggesting that available government land be considered for allotment.

Babu Rao said the CPI(M) would continue campaigning for house sites, titles and registration.