Revenue babus lack basic knowledge of land laws

Hyderabad: Revenue officers at all levels lack basic knowledge of land laws and required skills to interpret and enforce them, said Prof V Balakista Reddy, Registrar of NALSAR University of Law.

Addressing a training programme on "Challenges on Assigned Lands: Solution Mechanisms" here on Saturday, Prof Reddy said access and secured rights over land remains an unfulfilled dream for the millions of poor in India.

"There are numerous people who are struggling despite owning land. Reason being that they do not have proper records and documents," he said.

The one-day training programme was conducted under the aegis of the Centre for Tribal and Land Rights of NALSAR University of Law and Sadhana Academy of Imperative Law and Life Skills focusing on the issues related to the nature, assignment, purchase of the assigned lands, sale of lands assigned for house sites and the features of POTA Act of 1977 and the provisions for the regularisation of the assigned lands.

Prof Reddy said that in the recent past the initiatives taken by the Telangana government in bringing land reforms with special emphasis on making the transparency of land records would benefit more than three lakh families.

In the coming days, this move will reflect in providing secured land rights. However, the purchasers are facing various hurdles in order to get their legal rights on the land. This is due to purchasing of prohibited assigned lands, he said.

Stressing on the need to know the basic land rights and law by every landholder, Prof Reddy appreciated the initiatives taken by the Sadhana Academy in promoting Land Rights Awareness through this training programme.

Lack of legal awareness, absence of legal aid, inaccessible adjudicating systems and weak enforcement are a few factors which deny the poor to have access to justice.

Against this backdrop, Prof Reddy said, the Centre for Tribal and Land Rights has taken up several innovative community models to help the poor in securing land rights.

They include, paralegal training programme, pilot projects, village land clinics, establishment of land rights centres in district courts, training programmes to revenue officers, various legal literacy initiatives, besides the university has undertaken the review of participatory land laws. He said that these projects have helped more than a million households in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in securing land rights.

Classes at the one-day training programme are conducted by the advocates, retired revenue officials and law academicians. M Sunil Kumar, Land Rights Expert and NALSAR Adjunct Faculty, lead this event. Dr Ramesh, V Madhusudan Reddy, Abhilash, Jeevan, Sudarshan, Mallesh and Sagar have highlighted the issues involved.

More than 100 farmers, advocates, social activists, students of law, land owners, victims of land disputes from the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana participated in the training programme.