Hyderabad: About six lakh survey numbers of various landholdings in TS are stuck in disputes following the death of the landowners. The government has received multiple claims of ownership over these lands, forcing it to keep the ownership rights on these survey numbers for decades. Another three lakh survey numbers remain untraced, bringing the pathetic maintenance of revenue records in state to the fore.
Due to absence of written wills of landowners, there are several claimants to these properties. In some cases, the owners have sold the lands but the transactions took place on plain paper which his /her successors refuse to honour terming them fake. The revenue department is gearing up for a special three-day drive in August to set right the land records along the lines of the Intensive Household Survey conducted in August 2014.
However, the government’s decision to engage the services of untrained staff so that this special drive can be completed in three days is causing apprehensions among the various claimants and landowners that the exercise will lead to more litigations rather than resolving the existing ones. The revenue department had obtained the data on all survey numbers in the state after the Miyapur land scam surfaced in June.
The compilation of data revealed that there are 74.55 lakh survey numbers of landholdings in state. However, the web-land portal launched by the government to digitise land records shows only 29 lakh survey numbers, a huge gap between manual and digitised records. Deputy Chief Minister Mohd. Mahmood Ali, who also holds the revenue portfolio, said, “The special drive has been planned in August to rectify all land records. Once the special drive is completed, there would not be any scope for land litigations in the future in TS.”
Mr Mahmood Ali said the existing land records are based on survey done by the Nizam government in 1930s due to which land disputes have increased manifold over the years. He added that all survey numbers will be linked with Aadhaar to avoid duplication in future. Meanwhile, revenue employees associations are requesting the government to utilise the vast experience of retired revenue staff instead of engaging unemployed or untrained staff to complete the special drive to streamline the land records faster.
“Land is a complicated subject. With the real estate boom, land values have increased sharply in all districts. There were large-scale encroachments and other irregularities. It requires expertise and experience to ascertain the actual boundaries of each survey number And if any errors creep in again due to inexperienced staff, it will further complicate land records in the future,” said G. Shiva Shankar, association president.
