Hyderabad: The State Rythu Commission on Wednesday held a special meeting with officials and tribal farmers to address long-pending cultivation issues in agency areas. The session, chaired by Commission Chairman Kodanda Reddy at BRK Bhavan, brought together members Bhoomi Sunil, Ramulu Naik, Gopal Reddy, Bhavani Reddy, Cheviti Venkanna, Agriculture Director Gopi, Forest DCF Rajarama Reddy, officials from CCLA, ITDA, Tribal Welfare and Agriculture departments, along with bankers and farmers.

Tribal farmers explained that despite holding podu land titles, banks still refused crop loans. They added that borewell and electricity facilities were lacking, and marketing support for their produce remained poor. The Commission observed that nearly 2.6 lakh tribal farmers across Telangana had titles but continued to struggle for institutional credit.

Officials admitted that unresolved forest–revenue boundary issues further worsened the crisis. In many agency regions, preliminary forest notifications had been issued but final notifications were still pending, leaving farmers in limbo.

After detailed discussions, the Commission suggested five major measures:

Link Forest Rights Act (RoFR) records with revenue records to validate ownership.
Implement the Bhoo Bharati Act with priority in tribal areas.
Direct banks to provide loans based on RoFR records.
Fast-track the forest settlement process.
Conduct resurveys in disputed boundary zones.

Chairman Kodanda Reddy announced that the Commission would soon submit a formal report to the State government with these recommendations. He stressed that Chief Minister Revanth Reddy had shown a positive attitude towards resolving tribal farmers’ concerns.