The decision to abolish Village Revenue Officer (VRO) system in the state has come under strong criticism by opposition parties, who said that its an ‘unilateral decision’. The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have demanded that the government should withdraw the move as it would lead to further problems in revenue administration.
The Congress said that the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government should have consulted the opposition parties and all other stakeholders on scrapping the posts of VROs and other provisions of the new Revenue Act.
Congress floor leader in the Assembly Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said instead of preparing the draft of the new Revenue Bill in consultation with the opposition parties and other stakeholders, the government unilaterally prepared it and was going ahead to table it in the Legislature.
The Congress leader alleged that the TRS is bulldozing its way as it has the majority in the Assembly. "When such an important legislation is being brought, the government should have consulted the opposition. If there were any flaws in the existing system the government could have rectified it instead of replacing it with a new system," he said.
Meanwhile, BJP state President Bandi Sanjay Kumar described the move as meaningless. He alleged that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao was again trying to favour landlords by scrapping VRO posts at the base of the revenue system. He said the Chief Minister had earlier favoured landlords in the name of a comprehensive survey of land records.
"KCR is acting like a dictator, not as a democratically elected head of a state government. When making sweeping changes to a time tested institutional framework, the best practice is to initiate thorough discussions with stakeholders, opposition parties and intellectuals through due process," said another BJP leader Krishna Sagar Rao.
"BJP considers the sudden decisions to scrap VRO system, to stall the land registrations overnight, to physically swoop on VROs to snatch land records, as unruly, hasty decisions taken with a selfish political objective of recording his personal political legacy," he added.
The party demanded an expert committee be set up for studying the intended systemic changes to the revenue system, by including opposition parties, retired revenue officers and experts.
Communist Party of India (CPI) state Secretary Chada Venkat Reddy also slammed the KCR government for the unilateral decision to abolish the VRO system.
The Telangana government on Monday decided to scrap the posts of VROs. The Telangana Abolition of Village Revenue Officers Bill 2020, approved by the state Cabinet on Monday, will be tabled in the Assembly during the ongoing session.
The TRS government says its move is aimed at making the revenue system in the state transparent and corruption-free.