Thiruvananthapuram: The resurvey work launched in the state on January 26, is moving at a slow pace. In the first phase, the resurvey work was taken up in 117 villages of Kasargod district. While the authorities had completed preliminary works including scanning of old land records and triangulation work, the work on the ground needs to be expedited. The preliminary work was taken up in 10 villages of Hosdurg taluk and a total of 8571.62 hectares of land was to be surveyed. At many places triangulation works have been completed, GPS observations and installation of survey stones too have been carried out.
The department has ensured that GPS survey teams put in place the required arrangements for resurvey activities. After the completion of field work the traverse survey will have to be completed before taking up the detailed survey. Each village will have three survey teams. A total of 30 teams will be deployed in 10 villages. Survey activities are also underway in 70 villages in Idukki district. The High Court had ordered on August 29, 2016 that resurvey activities in Idukki district should be completed within one year.
When contacted, Revenue Minister E. Chandrashekharan told DC that resurvey activities were going on in more than 60 villages in the state. In order to complete the survey in a time bound manner, the department was using latest technology including Total Station Theodolite (TST), an electronic optical instrument used for modern surveying. The surveying instrument with a rotating telescope is capable of measuring horizontal and vertical angles of the land. He said the resurvey task is a humongous one and required lot of time.
The revenue department is hopeful that if everything worked according to their plan, the entire resurvey work across the state should be completed within five years. It may be recalled that the government was forced to put on hold the resurvey activities in about 1650 villages in 2012 after a flurry of cases flooded the civil courts and special survey adalats conducted during that period. The resurvey project in the state began as early as in 1965 and the work is yet to be completed. Meanwhile, the minister said that monitoring of village offices will be strengthened to resolve the grievances of people in a time bound manner. Senior officers including tahsildars, collectors have been asked to keep a close watch on the problems being faced by the people at the village office level.
