Shri Azmeera Chandulal, Hon’ble Minister for Tribal Welfare, Tourism and Culture, Government of Telangana while addressing the gathering as the Chief Guest at the inaugural function of One-day consultation on “Land Governance in Tribal Areas: Issues and Perspectives” at NALSAR said that the Tribals in Telangana suffer from inaccurate land records and insecure rights to land. It is important to update all the land records and provide secure rights to tribals on the lands which they are cultivating. This is mandatory so as to enable the tribals to access all the benefits due to them as farmers including crop loans, insurance, crop damages and other benefits. In this regard, the innovative and unique community driven land records updation model developed and piloted by Centre for Tribal and Land Rights (CTLR), NALSAR and Landesa is praiseworthy and worth scaling across Telangana.
Through this community driven process all the land problems in six villages of Mahbubabad and Jangaon Districts were identified and process initiated for resolving them. Land records were updated and land records kits were given to 200 poor families who have received secured titles to their land and all the village land records (pahani, 1B register, tippan and other records) were corrected and updated. The Hon’ble Minister also said that he is extremely happy that recently 73 tribal families in his constituency recently received pattas through this intervention. He also said with a cost of one lakh rupees per village, using this model all the tribals can get the secured land rights. He committed scaling of this model to two districts with the help of NALSAR and Landesa. He also appreciated NALSAR’s efforts in reviewing the land legislations with a special focus on rights of the tribals.
Prof.(Dr.)Faizan Mustafa, Vice-Chancellor, NALSAR welcoming the participants thanked the Government of Telangana for all its support extended to the University especially for its social outreach programmes. Prof. (Dr.) V.Balakista Reddy, Registrar and Coordinator, CTLR, NALSAR spoke on efforts of the CTLR in reviewing the land legislations, developing innovative pilots and taking up various initiatives to help the rural poor and tribal. Shri M. Sunil Kumar, National Director, Landesa/RDI highlighted the urgent need for updating the land records and spoke about the community driven pilot undertaken by NALSAR and Landesa. Dr.V.N.V.K.Sastry, Retired Director, TCR & TI shared his valuable experience working with tribals in the last three decades and requested the concerned stakeholders to focus on implementation of PESA, FRA, LTR and up-dation of Land Records.
Tribals from all the scheduled areas of Telangana, tribal beneficiaries of the community driven land records pilot implemented by NALSAR and Landesa, tribal researchers, academicians, representatives of NGOs, activists, officials of tribal welfare department, lawyers and other stakeholders participated in the day long discussion focusing on land records up-dation; implementation of RoR Act, PESA, LTR and FRA; and regulatory gaps in implementation of these laws and policies and devise methods to ensure effective execution of the same.
