Rachur farmers seek action against Veldanda Tahsildar

Nagarkurnool: As the Revenue department officials of Veldanda mandal in Nagarkurnool district illegally transferred 8 acres of land belonging to three persons from Rachur village to other persons without their knowledge and completely deleted their names from the Records of Revenue (RoR), the aggrieved farmers of the village staged a protest in front of Veldanda Tahsildar office and demanded justice.

It is alleged that Veldanda Tahsildar was hand in glove with some political leaders and had transferred the 8 acres land to other person's name and has been trying to harass the villagers for bribe money to correct the error.

"It is a clear handiwork of the Mandal Revenue Officer of Veldanda, who had illegally tampered the land records and transferred our lands to some other person's name. Now when we realised that our land is missing from the RoR and enquired with the Tahsildar and the VRO of the village, they are asking for the documents and proofs, when we produced the same they are asking for bribe to correct the error. Not just one case there are several such cases in many areas, where the revenue officials are behaving as they like just for the sake of money," said the agitating farmers of Rachur village.

Not just one case of Rachur, in another case in Venkatapur village of Sri Rangapur Mandal of Wanaparthy district, a farmer named Nagender Goud has also poured out his woes, where he was being harassed by the Village Revenue officer (VRO) Venkataramana who had changed the land records without the knowledge of Nagender. Later, when Nagender and his son approached the VRO about the changes in the land records without their knowledge, the VRO demanded Rs 40,000 from them to make the corrections in the records.

The Revenue department officials in Telangana already have a bad reputation of being one of the most corrupt officials. The revenue officials are of the attitude that even if the Collector gives directions, the poor farmers have to again approach the VRO and they would be at their mercy. This kind of an attitude has been deplored by the common man. The farmers have demanded the State government to take immediate measures to bring reforms in the Revenue department to make it corrupt-free and more citizens-friendly department besides providing services to the common man.