Buoyed by positive public response to the ongoing land revenue records purification programme, Deputy Chief Minister and Revenue Minister Mohammad Mahmood Ali has asserted that the Revenue and Registration Department of Telangana will emerge as the best in the country in 2018.
The soft spoken Deputy Chief Minister assures that once the first phase of land records purification is completed by December-end, there will be absolute clarity over land ownership in the revenue villages and the simultaneous updating of records in the online system. “The new Telangana State pattadar pass books to be issued after the verification process in the Gram Sabhas will be foolproof as they become the basis for government assistance, bank loans,” he told The Hindu here on Tuesday.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is determined to remove all lapses in the land revenue system that breed litigation, encroachments and secure all the government, assigned, Shikam lands, lands alienated to forest, Endowment and Wakf departments. The land records purification process is the tool to achieve the goal, he says.
Contrary to the allegations by the opposition, people in villages are happy with the farmers coordination committees comprising resident farmers to help revenue officers correct the records in the gram sabhas, he claimed.
Asked about allegations that some ruling party members encroached Shikam/tank beds in various districts, he said Chief Minister already indicated government’s zero tolerance towards government and Shikam land encroachers. Once the different categories of lands are notified at the end of the ongoing exercise, encroachers would be booked under the PD Act, he said.
“The Revenue Department staff at last is doing its core job, related to land administration, verification and updating of records from September 15,” he said with a smile. With the Revenue Department staff services sought by various departments for implementing government welfare programmes, revenue staff were hard pressed for time to focus on their primary duties. These three months, they would dedicate time for purification of land records, he said.
The Deputy Chief Minister, who visited Bellampally and Suryapet to monitor the process, said reorganisation of districts into smaller units became a major facilitator for the exercise. In Suryapet, 70% of records were already cleaned and of them 89% were with clear titles and only 11% were involved in disputes.
The disputes would be taken up in the second phase from January 2018 and District Collector, instead of MRO, RDO or Joint Collector, would directly call the parties concerned and resolve it with mutual consent.
The pending legal disputes however would be left to the courts.