Make land data public: K Chandrashekhar Rao to officials

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao has directed officials to filter all land records and make public the details on who owns which parcel of land.

For this, Mr Rao wanted officials to conduct a special drive all over the state for survey and settlement. He said all land transactions, both sale and purchase, should be done in a transparent way. 

He wanted pattadar pass books and pahani documents to be simplified to put an end to confusion over ownership. Land transactions and records should be maintained in a transparent manner like bank transactions, he noted.

He also asked officials to prepare an action plan to implement survey settlement with village as a unit and launch the survey as early as possible. He was speaking at a review meeting on the issue at Pragati Bhavan with senior officials on Monday.

Officials told Mr Rao that except during the Nizam’s rule in 1936, land records were never scrutinised nor filtered and this was causing several disputes, issues and difficulties. 

They said land disputes were becoming a law and order problem. To put an end to the land disputes, it was decided to survey the entire land with help from the Survey of India and other agencies.

“From the next year, the government has decided to give '8,000 per acre in a year to farmers. For this purpose the agriculture department has conducted a survey in the villages. The data collected by the agriculture department is not matching with the revenue records,” the Chief Minister said.

“If the agriculture department says there are 300 farmers in a particular village, the revenue records showed it as 1,100. Who will the government give money to? If the assistance is given to people without any accountability and denying eligible farmers, it will become a scam. Prepare details on 2.70 crore acres in the state,” he said.

“Survey should be conducted in 10,850 revenue villages. Conduct the survey for 15 days in each village. Give new passbooks after the survey. Give a unique identity number for each parcel of land. If need be, put border stones to the lands,” Mr Rao said.

He said the details available at the village level should be the same as 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, land records should also have such facility. Use the technology being used by the banks,” the Chief Minister said.