Govt wakes up to address issuance of title deeds

Hyderabad: Finally, the Telangana State Government has woken up from deep slumber. Serious on the brutal killing of a revenue official Vijaya Reddy by a farmer on the issuance of land title deed on Monday, the TS government has sought a report from all district Collectors on the status of updation of revenue records and the pending issuance of title deeds to the farmers.

Based on the data, the government will soon announce an action plan to resolve title deeds issue permanently.

It may be mentioned here that after the government issued a circular in 2018 which snatched away the Tahasildar (MRO) powers and authorised Joint Collectors to issue the title deeds with changes, the entire process of issuing title deeds has come to a grinding halt in the state.

Since then the mandal revenue officials were left a mere 'Liaison Officers' between farmers and joint collectors and it got a big delay in issuing new title deeds with changes sought by the farmers.

Top officials said that the state Revenue department has stopped issuing title deeds (pass books) liberally ever since the powers were transferred to the joint collectors due to various reasons mainly land disputes pending in the courts and ownership controversies pending in the mandal-level revenue offices.

There is no clarity whether to issue the title deeds to nearly 2.3 lakh accounts registered in the revenue department. The total number of accounts registered under the Land Records Updation Programme (LRUP) is 50 lakh.

Double registration of land had also come as a big problem before the government. Issuance of pass books to all the lands owned by individuals is not the solution. It can be solved only when all the disputes pending before the court are addressed, said a senior Revenue official.

Tahasildars compiled all the data of the land records and forwarded them to the district authorities to securitize them and announce the litigation-free land in their respective jurisdiction.

Meanwhile, state Special Chief Secretary to Revenue Department Somesh Kumar instructed the collectors to take all necessary measures to ensure the safety and security of the revenue officials during the office hours at the workplace.

"The Government will take all measures to safeguard the officers and staff," he said. Police protection will be provided if necessary, he added.