Karnataka will not only expedite the process of digitisation of land records, but also conduct a resurvey of all the rural properties within four years, according to Revenue Minister V. Srinivas Prasad.
Replying to the debate in the Legislative Assembly on the Revenue Department’s demand for grants on Thursday, the Minister said the government had taken up a pilot scheme under the National Land Records Modernisation Programme to conduct the resurvey of rural properties in 27 villages to bring about accuracy. The draft notes regarding the outcome of the resurvey were being issued to property owners. The scheme, under which the Centre would share 50 per cent of the cost, would soon be extended to all the districts and completed within four years.
The State entered into a memorandum of understanding with a private company in 2004–05 for scanning and digitising the land records that were nearly 15 years old, he said. Under this project, 4.71 crore pages of documents would be scanned. While the digitisation of land records of 33 taluks had been completed, digitisation was going on in the remaining 143 taluks. Only three other States, including Gujarat and Maharashtra, were digitising their land records, he said.
He would hold divisional-level meeting of revenue officials soon after the legislature session to resolve local issues.
The Minister hinted at liberalising the income ceiling for holding agricultural land under the Karnataka Land Reforms Act by bringing about a comprehensive land policy. He said the previous BJP government’s proposal to create 43 new taluks, which was made just before its term ended, would not be dropped, but would be implemented as and when it was financially viable.
He also assured the House of framing progressive rules for the implementation of the Centre’s Land Acquisition Act.
As many as 26,000 hamlets, which housed tandas (settlements of tribal people), were yet to be declared as revenue villages, he said, and added that he was considering bringing out legislation during the ongoing session to facilitate the declaration. Tandas that were located even on private land would also be declared as revenue villages.
