Minister for Revenue V. Srinivas Prasad on Monday said the government would soon launch a land resurvey programme under the National Land Records Modernisation Programme to set right ambiguities in land records.
Speaking to presspersons after a meeting of revenue department officials from the Bangalore Revenue Division here, Mr. Prasad said the Union government would bear half the cost of the Rs. 600-crore programme, and has already released Rs. 90 crore. The programme will commence in three months, he said. All land, including forest land and excluding those within the urban local body limits, would be surveyed and be given new survey numbers under the programme, Mr. Prasad said. There is sufficient number of land surveyors, including government and private, for the purpose, he added.
The Minister said the government has decided not to auction even an inch of government land which would be recovered from encroachers. All that land will be kept for public use.
Panel to be set up
As promised in the legislature, the government is setting up a committee, headed by a retired additional chief secretary, to go through reports from district commissioners (DCs) on government land encroachment in their respective districts.
This committee will submit an action taken report to the government, the Minister said.
The DCs have already been asked to send details based on reports on government land encroachment by A.T. Ramaswamy committee as well as the task force headed by retired IAS officer V. Balasubramanian, Mr. Prasad said.
Other issues
Mr. Prasad said the meeting discussed various other issues, including setting right technical glitches in issuing of records of tenancy certificates (RTCs); making Atalji Janasnehi Kendras more people-friendly; formation of bagair hukum committees to dispose of pending bagair hukumapplications; appointing special assistant commissioners to dispose of pending land related cases wherever huge pendency is observed; filling up of vacant posts of tahsildars and assistant commissioners of Grade I by promotion; and commencing direct recruitment process to appoint second and first division assistants.
Manaswini beneficiaries
Also, the department has decided that the beneficiary of Manaswini project (financial support to unmarried women aged above 40) need not apply for old-age pension after crossing 60 years, the Minister said.
Principal Secretary (Revenue) Basavaraju, Bangalore Regional Commissioner Gaurav Gupta, Survey and Settlement Commissioner V. Ponnuraj and others were present at the meeting on Monday.
