Hyderabad: Giving a push to reforms in the Revenue department, particularly in the area of land management, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Thursday said the digital survey of agriculture lands will be taken up soon and the coordinates for the lands will also be provided.
Instructing the officials concerned to invite tenders for the proposed survey, the Chief Minister expressed happiness over the functioning of Dharani Portal introduced by the government after a lot of effort and planning aimed at ensuring transparent registrations and mutations. “The portal is a huge success. Due to the new Revenue Act that was brought in, the revenue department has undergone drastic changes. Against this backdrop, a job chart would be prepared for the officials to define their duties and responsibilities,” he said.
Addressing a review meeting on Dharani and revenue reforms at Pragathi Bhavan, Chandrashekhar Rao said: “Thanks to Dharani Portal, corruption has been eradicated in the Revenue department, and justice has been done to farmers who otherwise have no voice and are innocent. The anarchic way of registering one person’s land on another name has now come to an end,” he said, adding that with this, the land litigations and skirmishes over them have also ended.
Pointing out that the State government, for the first time in the country, in an exercise never attempted before in history, carried out three years of detailed study and brought in the new Revenue Act. Registrations and mutations are being carried out in a transparent manner without giving any scope for corruption, he said, observing that registrations were being carried out only based on the seller and purchaser’s biometric and Aadhar identification.
Dharani Portal
“Only those lands registered in Dharani Portal can be sold or purchased, and only such lands can be given to others through hereditary rights or by gift deeds. Due to stringent measures put in place by the government, no one including the Chief Secretary or Chief Commissioner of Land Administration (CCLA) can manipulate or tamper with the records,” he said, and pointed out that every transaction was system-driven and carried out without any human interface.
Stating that farmers were happy with the new system, Chandrashekhar Rao said some people, however, were unable to digest the fact that the system was working perfectly. “They are spreading canards about Dharani portal. People who used to make money by raking up unnecessary problems and often indulged in settling matters are upset that they have no opportunity to make easy money now. They are the ones who are creating doubts and trying to confuse people,” he said, and urged people not to fall prey to such misinformation campaign. A section of the media was also indulging in spreading wrong reports and baseless stories, and
District Collectors should immediately issue clarification on such reports, he said.
“Several problems and issues with regard to agriculture lands in the State have been solved following the Comprehensive Land Records Survey, issue of new passbooks, Dharani portal and other such reforms. The remaining few problems will also be solved after the digital survey. As I announced on the floors of the Legislative Assembly, the State-wide digital survey will be taken up soon,” he said.
Complete clarity on all issues
Stating that the digital survey should have taken place by now, the Chief Minister said it could not be carried out due to Covid pandemic. “Once the survey is completed, there would be complete clarity on all issues. Boundary disputes between farmers on agriculture land, dispute over government and forest lands and between forest lands and private lands will be taken care of. There will be a solution to Podu lands too, and all such issues will be resolved in the next three or four months,” he said.
Pointing out that with the provision of land coordinates, he said there will not be any scope for boundary disputes in the future. “In countries where land records are maintained properly, they have achieved 3 to 4 percent GDP growth. The government is ready to have such a revolutionary change here,” the Chief Minister said.
“In tune with the changing situation, the revenue department’s set up has also changed. In the past, the term Revenue and the department came into being since it was involved in collecting taxes. Now, there is no tax collection, and moreover, the government is giving Rs 10,000 per acre under Rythu Bandhu scheme every year. Hence the name ‘revenue’ has no meaning now. There is a possibility of changing the nomenclature now,” he said.
Farmers who are busy with their cultivation need not run around Tahsildar offices now, and that is the main aim of Dharani Portal, Chandrashekhar Rao said. “If farmers have any problems or doubts, they should submit it to the Collectors. The Collectors should accept the applications, examine them and solve them based on the guidelines given by the Chief Secretary,” the Chief Minister said.
