Anomalies galore in land resurvey; many farmers in agony due to loss of lands in AP
VIJAYAWADA: Anomalies are galore in the ongoing Comprehensive Land Resurvey. Names of owners of the lands and land parcel sizes are getting changed, causing hardships to many across the state in getting the flaws/errors rectified in the new records.
Farmers are complaining that the surveyors are doing the resurvey based on the present 'bund' position of the agriculture fields without verifying the existing records. This is resulting in trouble for farmers in several areas.
Several farmers had encroached upon the fields located in their neighbourhood by 10 to 15 cents per acre, in the past. In the resurvey, such encroached land is recorded in favour of the farmer who keeps this in his possession, while his neighbourhood farmer who really owns it effectively loses that part of the land.
In a case at N Ganapathi Nagaram of Devarapalli mandal in Anakapalli district, the surveyors are allocating the encroached parts of the lands to the farmers who did it without verifying the old records including Settlement Fair Adangal, Field Measurement Book and Adangal.
This is against the rules and stipulations of the resurvey. The surveyors should co-relate the present and past records before recording the extent of the each individual owns after the resurvey.
Farmers say those who are influential and having a desire to encroach upon the neighbouring lands of small and marginal farmers will gain by getting more land in the resurvey while the small and marginal farmers lose parts of their small parcels of lands.
Similarly, some farm labourers who migrate to other places in search of work, away from their own fields back in their villages, are also losing their land in the resurvey. They are not aware of the complexities involved in the ongoing resurvey. The farmers having lands in their neighbourhood will get the benefit of getting the extra piece of land in their name.
In a case at Ponnuru vilage of Kalidindi mandal in Eluru district, a land parcel of 23.56 acres has been reduced in the resurvey to 0.36 acres. After the resurvey and issue of a final notification, 11.06 acres of land registered in the name of farmer’s daughter has gone to another farmer. Some 2.95 acres land belonged to the farmer’s sister went to an unknown person while the remaining parts of the land too met with the same fate.
The family members are approaching the revenue authorities to set right the anomalies. They are worried they may lose their lands they are enjoying for two to three generations by way of inheritance from their forefathers.
Allegations are that the surveyors in a bid to complete the resurvey process with given targets are doing the resurvey in haste, resulting in a series of irregularities. Worse, it is taking a long time to rectify these, causing severe mental stress to the farmers, not sure whether they may get back their lands.
Some affected farmers are readying to move court to set right the records of their land holdings after the lapses in the resurvey.
The farmers say though the state government has taken up the comprehensive land resurvey programme to renew the land records, to reflect the mirror image of ground position and remove all anomalies in land records and registered deeds, the end result is mental agony to a whole lot of farmers because of the erratic resurvey process.
Lack of proper training to the staff and lack of supervision are resulting in the lapses in the resurvey programme. Some landowners also use this occasion to manipulate things and get the lands of their neighbours into their fields by way of new records. Some surveyors, influenced by such vested interests, might knowingly err in such situations.
Farmers want the correlation of land parcel numbers and old survey numbers to be reflected in the Resurvey Land Register and the renewed Adangal so that they will not face any trouble on claims of ownership of lands in future and while going for registration of deeds.
