CM KCR Review on The Land Records in Telangana State

Honourable Chief Minister Sri K Chandrashekhar Rao has instructed the officials to rectify and cleanse the land records in toto in the State so that the land related litigations and issues find a permanent solution in the State. He suggested that the maintenance of land records, registration process should be simplified with utmost transparency.  The Chief Minister held a high level meeting on the Comprehensive land Survey, maintenance of the records, changes in the registration process and other issues at Pragati Bhavan here today.

            Deputy CM Sri Mohammed Ali, Ministers Sri Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, Sri Jogu Ramanna, State Planning Commission Vice Chairman Sri Niranjan Reddy, Deputy Speaker Ms Padma Devender Reddy, Whip Ms Gongadi Sunitha, Corporations Chairmen Sri Bhoom Reddy, Sri Kishan Rao, Legislators Sri Errabelli Dayakar Rao, Sri K Vidyasagar Rao, Sri C Rammohan Reddy, Sri Marri Janardhan Reddy. Sri Manchireddy Kishan Reddy, Sri Bajireddy Goverdhan, Sri Sudhakar Reddy, Government’s Chief Advisor Sri Rajiv Sharma, Advisor Sri KV Ramanachary, Senior Officials Sri BR Meena, Sri BP Acharya, Sri Parthasarathy, Sri Jaganmohan, Sri S Narsing Rao, Ms Shanta Kumari, Sri Venkatram Reddy, Ms Smita Sabharwal, Ms Vakati Karuna, Ms Priyadarshini, Sri Nadeem Ahmed, Sri Bhoopal Reddy, District Collectors Sri Raghunandan Rao, Sri Venkatram Reddy, Sri Sridhar Lokesh Kumar, PCCF Sri Jha, Sri Jayesh Ranjan, Sri Devdass, MDC Chairman Sri Subhash Reddy, Joint Collectors Sri Sunder Abnar, Sri Dharma Reddy, Retired officers Sri N Srinivas Rao, Sri B Madhusudhan, Sri D Venkat Rao and others participated.

            The meeting discussed the report submitted by a Committee headed by Ranga Reddy district Collector Sri Raghunandan Rao on the methods to be adapted for the cleaning of the land records. The CM said that if the land records are proper and in order, farmers input incentive scheme will be successful. The dates for rectifying the land records, formation of farmers associations and Farmers conferences are finalised.

          From Sept 1 to 9, Farmers’ associations’ coordination Committees will be set up. Farmers having the land in the villages will become the members. Coordination Committee will be formed with 11 members.

          From Sept 10 to 15, conferences of the Farmers Coordination Committees will be held at the Mandal level.

          From Sept 15 to December end, Comprehensive Land Survey with Revenue village as Unit total rectification and cleansing of land records will be conducted.

          This programme will be held from Sept 15 in all the mandals.

          Each revenue village will be treated as a Unit. 1100 Unit are finalised all over the State.  3,600 teams are to be selected.  Land records will be rectified with one revenue officer, one agriculture officer with the coordination of the Farmers Association in the village and by conducting the Gram Sabhas and taking in all the opinions. This will be held for a month in one village and each team will conduct the programme in three villages in as many months.

          MPs, MLAs, MLCs including the Chief Minister and other Ministers will take responsibility of one Unit and monitor the land rectification programme.

          It is estimated that about 85 to 95 percent of lands have no problem or litigation. Rectification of records of lands having no problem or litigation will be taken up first. Data on the sale and purchase, change of ownership will be obtained and the details will be kept on line. Lands having litigation will be taken up in the second phase. In case of court verdicts based on the judgments the land records will be rectified and ownership is identified.

          By December end all the land records will be rectified placed on the public domain on line and then the input subsidy scheme will be implemented.

            The Chief Minister has explained the background for the Comprehensive Land Survey. “Farmers who are solely dependent on cultivation are walking into debt trap. There is no Minimum Support price. He is not been able to lead the life. He is no in position to buy even a saree for his wife or school fees of his children. This is dire status of farmers who only lived on cultivation. They may move around wearing white clothes for some dignity, but their condition is pathetic. Once the crop season begins, he will run from pillar to post for loans. They run around the banks and moneylenders to raise loan. If there is a crop loss due to various reasons, the farmer is left with the debt and losing his entire investment. The rate of interest on loan increase creating more crises. I have been thinking about and to pull out farmers from this situation. I have spoken to several people on what should be done to the farmers. Finally we have concluded that the government should arrange for the finances to farmers for the input so that they are freed from the debts. With this the farmers’ will not lost their investment anything even if their crops fail them. Hence the farmers will not get into the debt trap. This is the reason why the government has decided to give Rs 8,000 per acre for two crops as input subsidy despite the heavy financial burden on the Exchequer,” the CM explained.

PART –II

            The CM has instructed that as part of the Land records rectification and cleansing programme to begin on Sept 15, the details and data on forest lands, Government land, Endowments lands, land being utilised for the public utility purposes, lands under the government buildings, lands under tanks, Lakes, other water resources should also be obtained and recorded. He also wanted the details and information on lands alienated by the government, lands assigned by the government and land acquired by the government to be collected and recorded. In this context, the CM announced that the input subsidy scheme would also be applicable to the farmers of the assigned lands. He also asked the officials to earmark the Gram Kantam. In the first phase, the CM wanted the lands having no litigation should be rectified and details of each land under the revenue village should be recorded. In the second phase, the entire landmass of the State should be surveyed and maps should be created. He wanted each and every change that takes place on a daily basis should automatically update the data using the latest technology.

            “The land survey was done during the Nizam’s rule in 1932-36 and after that no survey was ever done. There are several changes that took place in these 80 years but they were not properly recorded. Hence there is utter confusion about the land records’ maintenance and it is often leading to disputes. The records that the agriculture department has are in no match with that of the Revenue Department. This lead to a state of confusion for the government how should it implement the input subsidy scheme and to whom and what basis? In case of any mistake thousands of crores of rupees will get into a scam. We will be doing harm instead of the help that we have planned. Hence, it is necessary to know who owns what land and what extent?  We should know the real beneficiary and hence we are taking up the rectification and cleansing of records,” the CM said.

            “After the cleaning and rectification of the land records put them online. Even if small change is made this should be made known online. The Core Banking system being implemented by the Banks should come in the maintenance of land records. We get an online message when money is withdrawn from an ATM and the place from where the money is withdrawn. Land records should also to be maintained in a similar way. The entire process should be transparent and in every revenue office there should be one IT officer to coordinate the system. We will provide high-end computer systems and high bandwidth connections. All the revenue offices will be integrated,” the CM said.

            “Registrations should also to be done in a transparent way. Both the seller and buyer farmer should go to the registration office and submit their passbooks. The Registrar then removes the land particulars from the passbook of the seller and enters the same in the passbook of the buyer. The registrar should send these passbooks to MRO via courier. The MRO within four working days should register the buying and selling details, attest the passbooks change the ownership name and sent it back to the registrar. Registrar once again records these details in his office and sent the passbook back to farmers through a courier. Both the seller and buyer should come to registrar office only once. They need not come again to request for their work or making rounds to the registrar officer or MRO office. Simply Pahani and Passbooks and remove the unnecessary columns. Issue new passbooks. Passbooks should be made in such way that only a specialised pen could write on them. Maintain the quality standards high so that even if the passbook fell in water they should not get spoiled. Reduce the size of passbooks. Make the necessary changes Stamps and Registration Acts after thoroughly studying them. In future set up one registration officer per Mandal. Examine whether MRO can be entrusted with the job of registrations? Take a decision whether we need so many revenue courts and find out whether only Collector’s Court can function alone. Prepare a list of government lands whose registration is banned. Develop software which prevents registration of such lands,” the CM instructed.

            “Rectification and cleansing of land records will solve several problems. There will not be any dispute or problem once the record of the land is clean. In fact, this is a very huge task and challenge as there are several twists and turns. But you have commitment nothing can be a challenge. The officers should have patience like an Ocean. In Telangana when we resolved, illicit liquor vanished so is the case with playing cards. Hence we can also eradicate the land disputes and put an end to land dhandas once the records are cleaned and rectified,” the CM opined.

            “What farmers want is water for irrigation, investment and Minimum Support Price. We are among efforts to give water for irrigation. By next year 40 lakh acres will come under cultivation under Kaleswaram. Construction on Palamur and Sitarama projects is going on. Farmers are utilising the ground water to the optional levels with the power is being supplied to them. We are taking measures for the MSP to farmers. The government has taken the responsibility of coordinating and uniting the farmers. We are also implementing a scheme for the farmers to get the MSP,” the CM said.

            “The rectification and cleansing of land records programme should be launched in a big way on Sept 15.  Organise the inaugural programme in all the mandals. Ministers, MPs, MLAs and MLCs should take three villages and personally take part in the programme. I will also select three villages and participate. Agriculture, Revenue officials, farmers associations should take an active role. Sarpanches and other people’s representatives also should play an active role. We will take some employees on temporary basis for the rectification and cleansing of records programme,” the CM said.

-Press note