In a bid to reclaim the government land occupied by the encroachers, the Andhra Pradesh government has decided to use police force, if required.
According to informed sources, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Rajasekhara Reddy had asked district collectors to initiate steps to vacate the lands occupied illegally by various political parties and others in the state.
Officials said that there are about 15,000 acres occupied by the Communist party workers by planting red flags and in some areas even they built temporary huts. “The Chief Minister has ordered the officials to take possession of the land from the illegal occupants by end of this month (September),” officials said.
“We are not against providing house sites or houses to deserving poor. There are two housing schemes – Indiramma and Rajiv Gruhakalpa – which are exclusively meant for providing houses to rural and urban poor respectively,” housing minister B Satyanarayana who attended the Chief Minister review meeting said.
Meanwhile, the government is gearing up to distribute land to the landless poor. The programme will commence on November 1. It proposes to distribute about 2 lakh cultivable land for the fourth time, the minister said. To facilitate it, the government has decided to amend section 38 (E) of the Telangana Tenancy Act, he added.
