Briefly after a retired IAS officer, Mr. P V Ramesh (1985-batch officer), stated that he was a victim of the AP Land Titling Act (APLTA) — which sparked off an intense debate, Andhra Pradesh’s new Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, backed the ex-IAS officer’s complaints by calling the APLTA “preposterous” and then scrapped it. Gratified by this, Officer Ramesh thanked the sitting CM and stated that Andhra Pradesh had the Ryotwari Settlement launched in the 1820s and robust systems established for land administration over 200 years ago.
The ex-IAS observed that the NITI Aayog advisory on the legislation for providing secure titles to land is meant for the States that were part of the ‘permanent settlement’ or areas that were not ‘settled’ but not for the erstwhile Madras Presidency area of which Andhra was a part having the Ryotwari Settlement.
