Move on to revive resurvey

July 16, 2017 07:41 pm | Updated 07:41 pm IST

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:

Moves are reportedly afoot for reviving resurvey in the State.

The moves come at a time when complaints of encroachment and alienation of government land in the 881 villages where the process had been completed and disputes over eviction are raging.

Official sources told The Hindu here that preliminary discussions for re-starting the process have been initiated and it may be revived on getting a political consent. But challenges are too many for reviving the process.

The government would have to first evolve a fool-proof mechanism for settling complaints instantly and also adopt a system for surveying and demarcating government land first.

Resurvey being a combined effort of Survey and Revenue Departments, they would have to work in tandem and also in a complementary fashion for having the best outcome.

There were complaints that when the resurvey was launched earlier, the Revenue Department, after a point of time, had abdicated its responsibility and the entire process was allegedly taken over by the Survey Department and it unilaterally prepared the `poramboke’ register.

This is being cited as one of the major flaws of the process. Since the Revenue Department is duty-bound to protect public lands and is answerable to the courts, keeping it at bay had created too many confusion.

The entire process that should have been completed within a decade is still lagging after 50 years. The government had expended over ₹2,500 crore for resurvey expenses during he past five decades, but to no avail.

On deciding to go ahead, the government would have to seriously take up the digitisation of land records too. This would efface the need for conducting resurvey once in 10 years. Preparation of geo-referenced cadastral maps is imperative for conducting the process yet again.

A State Planning Board working group on land records had submitted a series of proposals to the government for modernising the land management system and making it more people-friendly and efficient.

The report had recommended the integration of Revenue, Survey and Registration departments, redeployment of staff and simplifying land registration and transfer. Revival of resurvey without attempting such recommendations may not yield the desired outcome, sources said.EOM/NJN

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