As the year 2017 is drawing to a close, the Revenue Department is on the verge of wrapping up a major initiative quite successfully - cleaning up and updating of land records for authenticity in all revenue villages in the State.
The comprehensive resurvey of the land was taken up after nearly seven decades for the much needed reconciliation of land records in the government system with the existing land holdings after verification and secure them online with authentic data.
“The well-executed, time-bound comprehensive land survey by the Collectors and their teams got positive feed back from people as they came to their door step and updated the land records. It is one of major achievements for the government this year,” summed up highly-placed sources monitoring the exercise.
“Our objective is clear. Once the verified land records are notified and locked in the online system, no one will be able to manipulate them and authentic government record will be available to settle land-related litigations. Secondly, the land revenue system eventually will evolve like that of core banking system with the land owner getting an alert through an SMS on any transaction pertaining to his/her land. By January-end, clarity on high-end land record database management will emerge,” they said.
“This is a paradigm shift for simple, transparent, people-friendly land records system which will be linked finally to the Registration Department. The link with Registration Department will prevent vested interests carrying out dubious transactions related to government or private land,” highly placed sources said.
For now, the phase I is being wrapped up, which comprised notification of all dispute-free land holdings of individuals, private and government in a village along with their survey numbers.
The survey was launched on September 15 this year by the Revenue Department in 10,806 revenue villages of 568 mandals. The work is completed in over 10,500 villages and over 2 crore acres of land has been verified. The remaining villages will be covered by December-end deadline.
“In the first phase survey, on an average, 92% of the land accounts in the revenue villages is declared clear. This is ascertained in a transparent manner with revenue teams going to the door-step of people in the villages armed with official land record IB, cross-checking with the land owners, accepting any objections and resolving the minor deviations in the gram sabhas. The final notification of clean records of every village is under way,” said Ms. Karuna, Land Survey Mission Director.
All those who have secured their land records in the phase I, will get input subsidy of ₹4,000 per acre announced by the government from the next kharif season.
The input incentive encouraged people to settle minor deviations with their neighbours or relatives. The lands that had been left fallow because of disputes could be now put to use, sources added.
The lands that are locked in major disputes will be taken up in the second phase starting in January, 2018. Disputes under purview of the Revenue Department will be resolved by the Collector/Joint Collector by calling both the parties and those land disputes already in Courts will be recorded pending final outcome.
“The second phase should take another four to five months. The government is also contemplating policy interventions and review of the Assigned Lands (Prohibition of Transfers) Act.
If a beneficiary of an assigned land sold it to another poor farmer, then it can be dealt in a sympathetic manner instead of resuming the land. Then the record will be updated in the name of new assignee.
