HYDERABAD: The State Government on Tuesday promulgated an ordinance in line with a recent Cabinet decision to take over the lands assigned to "poor people for agriculture purpose" but found the land sold and used for other purposes.

All the lands, assigned after 1977, have been brought under the purview of the ordinance, and therefore, are liable for takeover if found alienated after this cut-off year. However, it referred to the assignees by all-encompassing general term "poor people", avoiding a specific reference to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other weaker sections.

Sale null and void

It declared all the transactions effected by the assignees by way of sale as "null and void" to facilitate the takeover. The lands distributed as house-sites to the different categories of beneficiaries, however, are deemed exempted since it made no reference to this category.

The ordinance says that the agricultural lands, so taken over, will be restored to the original assignee or his/her legal heirs and if the Government is not able to trace them out, will be re-assigned to the other landless poor or used for public purposes.

The ordinance comes amid severe criticism across the political spectrum that the Government proposed to sell these assigned lands to fund its ambitious irrigation programme at the cost of the poor. According to official sources, the extent of lands, distributed to the poor since 1977 but found sold away by them, measured nearly 10,000 acres in and around Hyderabad alone.

Amending the AP Assigned Lands (Prohibition of Transfers) Act of 1977, the ordinance bans sale of assigned lands.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu