Centre offers support for Telangana’s land survey

Hyderabad: The Comprehensive Land survey and settlement taken up by the Telangana State government is a revolutionary programme and it will be a role model for other states to follow, said Hukum Singh Meena, Joint Secretary, Department of Land resources, Government of India. He said that the Centre would extend all its support and cooperation to the programme.

Hukum Singh Meena, along with team of officials met Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao at Pragati Bhavan here on Friday and discussed about the land survey in the State.

Chief Advisor to Government Rajiv Sharma, Chief secretary SP Singh, Special Chief Secretary (revenue) BR Meena, CMO Principal Secretary S Narsing Rao, Secretary Smita Sabharwal, Union Land resources department technical Directors Gowtham Potru, Dinesh Kumar, DS Venkatesh and others participated. The Chief Minister has explained to officials from the Centre about the land survey programme.

“The land survey took place during the Nizam’s rule in 1932-36 in the region. After that no survey was done. Since the land records are not maintained properly there are disputes and litigation. There are skirmishes over who owned what land? Moreover, the Telangana State, for the first time in the country, has decided to give Rs 8000 per acre to the farmers as an input financial assistance for two crops in a year. If this programmes to be implemented successfully, there is a need to find out under whose name the land is. This is the reason why we are undertaking the land survey,” he said.

In 10,875 villages in the State, the survey will be done with village as a unit. Officials will stay put in the villages and with the cooperation from farmers will conduct the survey, update the records online. New passbooks will be given after the rectification of the records. We are bringing in reforms in the registration process also. We have instructed the officials’ complete mutation on the day of the registration. For all this it is necessary to have proper land records, he said.

“Before formation of Telangana state there was no proper data or information on this. After we have done Comprehensive Family survey we came to know the ground realities and it had helped us to plan the programmes and schemes properly. This also helped us in implementing the government programmes effectively. Similarly, we hope that with the land survey, the input financial scheme for farmers and the registration process will be done in a proper way. Once the survey is completed here, it will become a live example for other states to follow. We will prepare a detailed project report on the issue and will be sent to the Centre,” the Chief Minister said.

Replying to this, Hukum Singh said there is a need to conduct such survey all over the country. He has expressed happiness that under the visionary guidance of Sri KCR the survey is being conducted in the State. He said comprehensive land survey is a revolutionary step and is will be a role model for other states. He assured that the Centre would extend all the financial and technical help to the survey. He said help would be given to the State when the DPR is submitted to the Centre. He hoped that the survey would be successful as it has the political will and participation from people and farmers. He said there is a need to have a technology in tune with the geographical position of the Telangana state and assured that the centre will help in this regard. He said 25 agencies recognised by the Centre are willing to extend help the State in conducting the survey and their help can be taken.

Meeting on Land Survey on Aug 20

The CM has decided to have an extended review meeting on the Land Survey at Pragati Bhavan on August 20. A discussion on the comprehensive land survey’s action plan will take place. Already some Collectors and senior revenue officials are preparing reports on how to conduct the survey and their reports will be presented at the meeting and a discussions will also takes place.