Rectify, cleanse and update Land Records says KCR : Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao

Rectify, cleanse and update Land Records says KCR

Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao

Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao in a day long marathon high-level review meeting with officials and non-officials, on comprehensive land survey in the state, has instructed the officials, to rectify, cleanse and update the land records in toto in the State so that the land related issues find a litigation free permanent solution. He suggested that the maintenance of land records and registration process should be simplified with utmost transparency.  Apart from Comprehensive Land Survey the review meeting focussed on, maintenance of the land records, changes in the registration process and other land related issues.

            Initiating discussion on the report submitted by Raghunandan Rao (a senior IAS officer and Collector Rangareddy District) committee constituted for making recommendations on modalities to be adapted for land survey, CM said that if the land records are proper and in order, farmers input incentive scheme will become successful. The dates for rectifying the land records, formation of farmers’ associations and farmers’ meetings have been finalised.

From September 1 to 9, farmers’ associations’ coordination Committees will be set up. Farmers having the land in the villages will become the members. Coordination Committee will be formed with 11 members. From September 10 to 15, conferences of the Farmers Coordination Committees will be held at the Mandal level. From September 15 to December end, Comprehensive rectification, cleansing and updating of land records with Revenue village as Unit will be conducted. This programme will be held from September 15 in all the Mandals.

For this purpose, each revenue village will be treated as a Unit. 11, 000 such units are finalised all over the State and 3,600 teams would be identified to head these units.  Land records will be rectified with one revenue officer, one agriculture officer as well as with the coordination of the Farmers’ Association members in the village and by conducting the Gramsabhas. All this process will be based on eliciting the opinion of entire village farmers. It is expected to take a month for one village and each team will conduct the programme in three villages in as many months.

MPs, MLAs, MLCs including the Chief Minister and other Ministers will take responsibility of one Unit and monitor the land rectification programme.

It is estimated that about 85 to 95 percent of lands have no problem and are litigation free. Rectification of records of lands having no problem or litigation will be taken up first. Data on the sale and purchase, change of ownership will be obtained and the details will be kept on line. Lands having litigation will be taken up in the second phase. In case of court cases the final decision would be subject to court verdicts and based on the judgments the land records will be rectified and ownership will be identified. It is decided that by December end all the land records will be rectified, placed on the public domain on line, and then, the input subsidy scheme will be implemented.

            The Chief Minister has explained the background for the Comprehensive Land Survey and said that, farmers who are solely dependent on agriculture are dropping into debt trap. It is also difficult to get Minimum Support price. He is not able to lead the life comfortably. He is not able to buy even a saree for his wife or pay school fees of his children. This is the awful status of farmers who only lived on cultivation. They may move around wearing white clothes for some dignity, but their condition is pathetic. Once the crop season begins, he will run from pillar to post for loans. They run around the banks and moneylenders to raise loan. If there is a crop loss due to various reasons, the farmer is left with the debt and losing his entire investment. The rate of interest on loan increases creating more crises.

CM said that he has been thinking about all this and decided to pull out farmers from this situation. When he had spoken to several people on what should be done to the farmers, he finally, concluded, said CM, that the government should arrange for the finances to farmers for the input so that they are freed from the debts. With this the farmer will not lose their investment even if their crops fail them. Hence the farmers will not get into the debt trap. This is the reason why the government has decided to give Rs 8,000 per acre for two crops as input subsidy despite the heavy financial burden on the Exchequer.

            The CM has instructed that as part of the Land records rectification and cleansing programme to begin on September 15, the details and data on forest lands, Government land, Endowments lands, land being utilised for the public utility purposes, lands under the government buildings, lands under tanks, Lakes, other water resources should also be obtained and recorded. He also wanted the details and information on lands alienated by the government, lands assigned by the government and lands acquired by the government to be collected and recorded. In this context, the CM announced that the input subsidy scheme would also be applicable to the farmers of the assigned lands. He also asked the officials to earmark the Gram Kantam-land for residential purpose. In the first phase, the CM wanted the lands having no litigation should be rectified and details of each land under the revenue village should be recorded. In the second phase, the entire landmass of the State should be surveyed and maps should be created. He wanted that every change that takes place daily should automatically update the data using the latest technology.

            CM further said that, the land survey was done during the Nizam’s rule in 1932-36 and after that no survey was ever done. There are several changes that took place in these 80 years but they were not properly recorded. Hence there is utter confusion about the land records’ maintenance and it is often leading to disputes. The records that the agriculture department has with it is not matching with that of the Revenue Department. This lead to a state of confusion for the government as to how should it implement the input subsidy scheme and to whom and on what basis? In case of any mistake thousands of crores of rupees will get into a scam. CM said that government will be doing harm instead of the help that it has planned. Hence, it is necessary to know who owns what land and what extent?  One should know the real beneficiary and hence the government is taking up the rectification and cleansing of records said CM.

            After the cleaning and rectification of the land records, they will be posted online. Even if small change is made this should be made known online. The Core Banking system being implemented by the Banks should be adapted in the maintenance of land records. We get an online message when money is withdrawn from an ATM and the place from where the money is withdrawn. Land records should also to be maintained in a similar way. The entire process should be transparent and in every revenue office there should be one IT officer to be specially recruited, to coordinate the system. CM suggested to recruit 1000 such IT officers, train them and send them to revenue department. Government decided to provide high-end computer systems and high bandwidth connections. All the revenue offices will be integrated said Chief Minister.

            CM also said: “Registrations should also to be done in a transparent way. Both the seller and buyer farmer should go to the registration office and submit their passbooks. The Registrar then removes the particulars of land from the passbook of the seller and enters the same in the passbook of the buyer. The registrar should send these passbooks to MRO through courier. The MRO within four working days should register the buying and selling details, attest the changes in passbooks, change the ownership name and send it back to the registrar. Registrar once again records these details in his office and sends the passbook back to farmers through a courier. Both the seller and buyer need not come to registrar office more than once. They need not come again to request for their work or making rounds to the registrar officer or MRO office”.

“Simply Pahani and Passbooks and remove the unnecessary columns. Issue new passbooks. Passbooks should be made in such way that only a specialised pen could write on them. Maintain the quality standards high so that even if the passbook fell in water they should not get spoiled. Reduce the size of passbooks. Make the necessary changes in Stamps and Registration Acts after thoroughly studying them. In future set up one registration officer per Mandal. Examine whether MRO can be entrusted with the job of registrations? Take a decision whether we need so many revenue courts and find out whether only Collector’s Court can function alone. Prepare a list of government lands whose registration is banned. Develop software which prevents registration of such lands,” the CM instructed.

            “Rectification and cleansing of land records will solve several problems. There will not be any dispute or problem once the record of the land is clean. In fact, this is a very huge task and challenge as there are several twists and turns. If you have commitment nothing can be a challenge. The officers should have patience like an Ocean. In Telangana when we resolved, illicit liquor vanished so is the case with playing cards. Hence, we can also eradicate the land disputes and put an end to land dhandas once the records are cleaned and rectified,” the CM opined.

            “What farmers want is water for irrigation, investment and Minimum Support Price. We are making efforts to give water for irrigation. By next year 40 lakh acres will come under cultivation under Kaleswaram. Construction on Palamoor and Sitarama projects is going on. Farmers are utilising the ground water to the optional levels with the power is being supplied to them. We are taking measures for the MSP to farmers. The government has taken the responsibility of coordinating and uniting the farmers. We are also implementing a scheme for the farmers to get the MSP,” the CM said.

            “The rectification and cleansing of land records programme should be launched in a big way on September 15.  Organise the inaugural programme in all the Mandals. Ministers, MPs, MLAs and MLCs should take three villages and personally take part in the programme. I will also select three villages and participate. Agriculture, Revenue officials, farmers associations should take an active role. Sarpanches and other people’s representatives also should play an active role. We will take some employees on temporary basis for the rectification and cleansing of records programme,” the CM said.