Bonanza' of unused Rs 256 crore angers Telangana CM

Hyderabad: It was an unintended ‘gift’ that left Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao annoyed with officials.

During a meeting on Thursday on the proposed land survey set to begin on September 1, officials said that Rs 256.5 crore given by the Centre three years ago had not been utilised.

The money was released under the Digital India land records modernisation programme following a request by the state government. The revenue department did not spend the money.

The major components of the programme included computerisation of land records, digitalisation of maps and integration of textual and spatial data, survey and re-survey of land and creation of original cadastral records, development of core geospatial information among others. 

A note circulated at the meeting said the government had not been utilised so far.

On coming to know of this, Mr Rao got angry with the officials for not spending the money. He later said the funds could be utilised for the proposed re-survey.

In the meeting, Mr Rao said the proposed financial assistance of Rs 8,000 per acre per year to agriculture land owners would be the most important welfare scheme of the government. He said it was essential to ensure that the programme reached the beneficiaries.

It was observed that the data collected by the agriculture department for identifying the beneficiaries was not matching with the revenue records. Mr Rao said there was a need to filter all land records by using modern technology.

The government has decided a 45 day timeline for the re-survey.