'Digitisation of land records within a year'

Parliamentary Secretary to the Revenue Minister Pramod Madhwaraj has said that the digitisation of land records in the Revenue Department will be taken up in a year.

Speaking to reporters after a review meeting of the Revenue Department on Saturday, he said, “The digitisation will help in solving the problems pertaining to missing files. We will also seek funds from the Centre to take up the initiative of digitisation of land records.”

He told officials to trace missing files pertaining to the Revenue Department  within a stipulated time and warned of initiating criminal proceedings against the officials if the files were not traced.

Madhwaraj said that, to rectify the mistakes in the Records of Rights, Tenancy and Crops (RTC), revenue adalats will be conducted by the tahsildars till September 30. “A total of 5,174 faulty RTCs are pending to be cleared in Dakshina Kannada district. In the 375 revenue adalats conducted in the last one year, a total of 31,293 RTCs have been rectified,” he added.

He said that, in a joint survey by the Forest Department and the Revenue Department officials on the extent of deemed forest area in the district, the authorities have recommended to the government to drop 86,115 acres of land from the deemed forest list and hand it over to the Revenue Department. Before the survey, the area of deemed forest in the district was 1,54,262 acre, he added.

Madhwaraj said that he has directed the officials concerned to dispose the pending files related to the Revenue Department on a time-bound basis. “Files relating to RTC corrections, which are one to six years old, should be disposed within six months. As many as 978 cases related to land grant by the government are pending for the issue of RTCs. The officials have been asked to dispose 820 cases within three to six months. Under the Land Reforms Act, 421 files are pending which need to be completed within six months,” said the legislator.

He directed the officials to complete the work on 671 cases on RTC correction on Bhoomi software within a month.

Podi-free village
Madhwaraj said that a Podi-free village drive had been taken up to convert cases of RTC having multiple ownership into single ownership. “The drive will help people in setting their RTC right. The drive has been initiated in 45 villages in Dakshina Kannada. A total of 26,226 paiki RTC record land has been measures and 17,171 RTCs have been set right,” he listed out.

The legislator, however, added that the progress under Urban Property Ownership Records (UPOR) is only 11 per cent. A total of 1,43,387 properties have been measured in Mangaluru city and 15,500 property cards have been prepared. The poor progress in UPOR is due to shortage of surveyors, he said.

The district stands third in the state in performance under Sakaala in connection with the Revenue Department. In the linking of the Aadhaar card with the social security schemes, the progress is 86 per cent and the district stands top in the list, he added.

Madhwaraj said that the last date to submit applications seeking regularisation of houses on government land in rural areas under Section 94C of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act has been extended till October 4 and under 94CC for the urban areas to August 27. In Dakshina Kannada, a total of 56,000 applications have been received under 94C and 4,036 applications under 94 CC.
DH News Service  ‘Crop update needed’
Legislator Pramod Madhwaraj has directed Mangaluru Tahsildar to take up update of crops in the Records of Rights, Tenancy and Crops (RTC) of farmers from Kuthethoor, Thenka Ekkar, Permude and two nearby villages on a priority basis. “The villages are facing threat of land acquisition for the fourth phase of MRPL. If the crop details are not updated properly, then the villagers cannot fight legally for their right to safeguard the land,” he explained.