Telangana: New land passbooks to name only owner
Names of those making use of land to be dropped.
Hyderabad: The state government has decided to scrap the ‘enjoyers column’ from pattadar passbooks. Only the names of pattadars, land owners, will be mentioned in the new passbooks to be issued after the ongoing land survey. The inclusion of ‘enjoyers’ in passbooks was giving scope to litigations, it was found. In the existing passbooks the land is registered on the name of the owner and the patta is issued. There is also a column comprising the names of those who are actually utilising the land. Enjoyers are mostly family members of the pattadars.
It was found that the ‘enjoyers’ were availing crop loans and other benefits without the knowledge of pattadar. Besides, disputes were cropping up among ‘enjoyers’, in the case of death of the pattadar, with each one claiming ownership of the land. The government has decided to issue new passbooks from January 2018 based on ongoing land survey across the state till December 31. The government has amended the Record of Rights (RoR) Act to delete the names of ‘enjoyers’.
“The new passbooks will be tamper-proof with 26 security features modelled on the lines of the passport. The water resistant passbooks will not be affected even if they submerged for several days. We are planning to issue the first set of these passbooks on Republic Day,” said Mohd Mahmood Ali, Deputy Chief Minister and revenue minister.
Unlike earlier, the details on new passbooks cannot be manipulated with overwriting. Making any entries is possible only with a special pen used by the authorised officials. The government directed officials to ensure completion of land survey in all districts barring Hyderabad by December 31 and made it clear that there is no question of extending this deadline.
The land survey commenced on September 15 and 60 per cent of over 10,800 revenue villages in the state have been covered so far. Officials have been asked to complete balance 40 per cent survey in the remaining 31 days. The government will take up land survey in GHMC and HMDA limits in the next phase from April to purify land records.