Telangana to get RBI stamp for security features

Hyderabad: Telangana government has sought the assistance of the Reserve Bank of India’s Security Printing Press in preparation of the high security-enabled pattadar passbooks to be distributed to more than 70 lakh farmers on a single day on March 13 across the state.

The Security Printing Press will finalise the high-security features required for the printing of passbooks. The RBI press will do technical evaluation of the passbooks to ensure that the data will be safe from the duplication and also theft. After it finalises the features, the government will award the works to the private agencies for printing the passbooks.

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has taken up the giant task of the distribution of the high-security passbooks to put an end to the increasing cases of land ownership disputes and encroachments. The passbooks would enable welfare schemes like farm loans, input subsidy, distribution of fertilisers and seeds to reach genuine beneficiaries. 

The government has recently completed land purification programme and created a fresh data base on the ownership of lands in the state. A top official said that the printing press will encrypt all the important data in the passbooks. A unique code with 13 to 14 digital numbers will be given to each farmer which is to be displayed on the passbook along with the farmer’s photo. 

The code will help the government to track the farming activity taken up by the farmer in every agricultural season. The banks will also disburse loans to the farmers based on the unique code verification. The other important security features like hologram and maps measuring the extent of the land owned by the farmer will also be included in the passbook.

A top official said that state government-owned Telangana Technical Services was entrusted to invite tenders from private agencies for the preparation of the passbooks. “The RBI press will assist the bidder to make the error-free passbooks. 

In view of the short time left for the distribution, the government decided to select at least 3 agencies for the completion of the passbooks by March first week. A network involving Revenue, Agriculture and Panchayat Raj departments will be created for the distribution of passbooks in every village,” he said.