CM KCR favors fresh survey and settlement of Lands : Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao

CM KCR favors fresh survey and settlement of Lands

Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao

Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao has instructed the officials concerned to screen all the land records in the State and make public the details on, who owns what extent of land. For this, the CM expects the officials to conduct a special drive all over the State for survey and settlement. Henceforth, he said, all the land transactions both sale and purchase should be done in a transparent way. He wanted Pattaadar pass books and pahani documents should be re-done in a simple way and to put an end to confusion. The land transactions and records should be maintained in a transparent way like the bank transactions. He has instructed the officials to plan a strategy to filter the land records and make future transactions simple and transparent. He also asked them to prepare an action plan to implement survey settlement with village as a unit and launch the survey as early as possible.

The CM held a high-level review meeting on filtering the land records at Pragati Bhavan on 7^th August 2017 in which top level officers including Chief Secretary and Chief Advisor to Government participated.

In the seven-hour marathon discussion, several important and major decisions were taken. The meeting in a consensus opinion has concluded that except during the Nizam’s rule in 1936, land records have never been scrutinized nor filtered. This is causing several land related disputes, issues and difficulties. The land disputes are also becoming law and order problems. To put an end to the land disputes, it is decided to survey the entire land in the state taking help from institutions like Survey of India and other similar agencies in the country. It is decided to survey the entire land in the state with the help of the latest technology and IT enabled methods.

The CM said that, “From next year, the government has decided to give Rs 4000 per acre to the farmer for two crops in a year as an input assistance. For this purpose, the agriculture department has conducted a survey in the villages. But the data collected by the agriculture department is not matching with the revenue records. In one instance, if agriculture department has shown in their data, that, there are 300 farmers in a village, the revenue records showed it as 1100 in the same village. In such a case to whom will the government give money?  If the assistance is given to people without any accountability and denying the eligible farmers, it will become a scam and the government will get a bad name. Eligible farmers will not get the money. Not only this, there are other problems if the land records are not correct and proper. There is a room for corruption and law and order issues are also cropping up. Land disputes are also leading to murders. To put an end to all this, there is a need to survey the entire land in the state and get clarity on who owns what land? The revenue department should conduct a special drive for this. The survey should be done with village as unit. Get clarity on how much land is there? Which land is registered and on whose name? Prepare details on the entire 2.75 crore acres of land that is estimated to be available in the State and under what categories the land is shown. By doing such a filtration once, schemes like Rs 4000 per acre for two crops will be successful and will reach the actual beneficiaries. This will also put an end to the disputes in future.”

“Land neither increases or decreases and the extent will remain the same. It is enough if we get clarity on whose name the land is. It is enough if the records at the village level are rectified. Survey should be conducted in all the 10,850 villages in the state. Depute 3,500 revenue offices and make them in charge of three villages. Conduct the survey for fifteen days in each village under the guidance of villagers and the farmers’ Associations. There are several technical and IT tools available now for the conduct of the survey. Take help from the Survey of India and other agencies in the country. Since this is a good programme, people will also cooperate.  Collectors and other revenue officers will be exclusively entrusted with this work till the survey is over. There is a lot of confusion in the Pattaadar passbooks and pahani papers which are in use now. There is no need for so many columns, make it simple. Once the filtration is over, put the details online. Give new passbooks after the survey. Give a unique identity number for each land. If need be, put border stones to the lands. The details available at the village level should be the same with the CCLA. In case of any change, it should be reflected at all levels online.  Like the instant messages one gets while withdrawing cash from an ATM and the same is modified in the bank records, similarly, land records should also have such facility. Use the technology being used by the banks”.

Later, speaking in a public meeting held the next day in a village the CM said that about 25 agencies across the country will be roped in for the proposed integrated land survey. On completion of the survey and settlement drive, the government will issue fresh tamperproof passbooks to farmers to enable them to avail the benefit of Rs 8, 000 per acre for agriculture.

In this context CM also said that the government is developing a new land registration and mutation system wherein farmers need not visit government offices for land registration or mutation. MROs will be authorized to conduct land mutation and sub-registrars will coordinate with them during land registrations and courier the documents to farmers. CM further said that once the agriculture capital subsidy of Rs 8, 000 and streamlining of land records come in to effect, the farmers will be enrolled for the scheme. The amounts will be deposited into their bank accounts directly by the government notwithstanding their landholding or financial status.