CM KCR to resolve Podu lands issue soon

Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao will soon embark on a tour of the State to resolve the issue of Podu lands in forest areas as promised during the elections, Minister for Forests and Environment A Indra Karan Reddy said on Sunday.

He said until the Chief Minister’s tour, the forest officials had been asked not to dig trenches to demarcate the forest land following requests from locals.

Replying during the discussion on budget demands in the State Assembly here, Indra Karan Reddy said the State had a forest cover of 27,402.98 sq km including 12 protected forest zones which form about 24 per cent of the State’s total geographical area. “As per the Chief Minister’s directions, all effort are being made to increase the forest cover to 33 per cent of total geographical area of the State,” he said.

While the State government aims to plant 230 crore saplings under Haritha Haram programme, about 182.74 crore saplings have been already planted across the State including forest areas, urban forests areas, avenue plantation and others. Further, the Forest



Department has estimated survival rate of these saplings to be around 75 to 80 per cent.

The Minister said budgetory allocations of Rs 120 crore were made for Endowments Department for ‘Dhoopa Deepa Naivedhyam’ scheme where salaries amounting to Rs 6,000 each to priests in 3,645 temples would be provided. Before the formation of the State, the scheme was extended to only 1,840 temples with a salary of Rs 2,500 to priests. While Rs 15 crore had been allocated for Bonalu celebrations, another Rs 50 crore were allotted for various other works.

While works for development of Yadadri temple as an international spiritual centre are moving at a brisk pace with Rs 350 crore, the Endowments Department has drawn plans to develop the temples at Basara, Vemulawada and Bhadrachalam at Rs 50 crore each as per directions of the Chief Minister. About 40 per cent of 80,000 acres of endowment lands have been encroachment in the State. “We have been receiving complaints from various quarters which are being pursued continuously,” the Minister said.