Gujarat halts agricultural land resurvey process due to errors and irregularities

Following charges of irregularities in land mapping process, Gujarat Government on Tuesday announced halting of process of finalising agricultural land records across 6,000 or the 18,000 plus villages in the State.

Talking to the reporters revenue Minister Kaushik Patel informed that the State Government was receiving plethora of representations from farmers, legislators and many others with regards to errors and irregularities in the re-survey process.

It was decided during Cabinet meeting not to issue promulgation of land records where re-survey is pending, said Patel adding that even in the cases where the re-survey work has been completed and promulgation made, we will look in to objections.

Gujarat Government has been receiving objections from farmers across the State with regards to finalisation of land records. The State Government had given the contract for survey to a Hyderabad-based firm last year for survey of agriculture land records, first ever since independence. The firm used satellite imagery for land mapping exercise. However, when compared to land measurements on ground, lot of discrepancies were said to have been found. There were also complaints of lapses in the official process to be followed. This had put the state government on a back foot. It is also said to be one of the important grouse farmers in the state were said to have against ruling BJP, especially in Saurashtra region, leading to BJP’s loss in the region.

Already the State Government had finalised the land records of over 12,000 villages. Now, Vijay Rupani Government announced that it would halt the process and punish the agencies involved if found guilty of laxity.