The Land Titling Act (LTA) introduced by the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh has become a major political issue in the general elections in the state, scheduled to be held on May 13.
Telugu Desam Party has been creating a huge ruckus over the LTA, triggering panic among the people in general and farmers in particular.
The act is being compared to Dharani portal brought in by K Chandrasekhar Rao government in Telangana, that led to a massive unrest among the people.
The TDP leaders, particularly party president N Chandrababu Naidu, have been raising the issue of Land Titling Act at every public meeting, telling the people that Jagan, if voted to power, would acquire all their lands by manipulating the records in the name of land re-survey.
"Jagan Reddy, with his benami name, opened a private company in the USA and planned to store the records of people's land in it. Under this act, people need permission from the person who is nominated by Jagan to sell their lands," he said, and promised to revoke the act once the TDP comes to power.
Unfortunately, the YSRCP leaders have not been able to counter the arguments of Naidu and other TDP leaders, as many of them do not have complete knowledge of what the Act is all about and how the apprehensions of the people could be allayed.
Even Jagan could not effectively rebut the allegations, except saying that the TDP leaders were resorting to fake propaganda in the election campaign and sending IVRS calls to people saying that ‘Jagan will grab all your lands’.
Jagan stated that the purpose of the act is to grant farmers full rights to their land.
"After completing the current survey, the government will ensure that there are no disputes over these lands. To achieve this, we must conduct surveys across the state," he said, although he did not specify how this will directly benefit the people.
“Similarly, lies are being propagated regarding registrations with fake advertisements that physical documents were not given after registrations. So far 9 lakh registrations were done with the help of Card 2.0 software, and the documents were also given to the owners. The process has been simplified with default format to fill the details so mistakes can be avoided in the document,” Jagan said.
However, the people still appear to be in a state of panic, as they are apprehensive of any move that will affect their land rights.
The ruling party has to focus on this issue and remove the apprehensions; otherwise, there is every possibility that they would believe the TDP propaganda in the elections.