Steps initiated to streamline revenue administration from village level, says Minister  

The State Government has initiated several steps to streamline the Revenue Administration right from the village level.

It has initiated the process for recruiting revenue administration personnel in each of the 10,954 revenue villages across the State. Attention is now focussed on the recruitment of surveyors around 5,000 to 6,000 in the first phase. The Government is keen on following the Karnataka model where over 17,000 surveyors have been deployed across the State.

“We will appoint licensed surveyors and scientific methods are being explored in their recruitment,” Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy said. Once recruited, the new surveyors would be given intensive training for 90 days before deploying them on the field. “Survey is a sensitive issue and we want to tread cautiously in this regard,” the Minister said.

He said the maps prepared by the licensed surveyors would be vetted by the Government surveyors after which they would be entered into the records. The effort was aimed at ensuring that maps are made mandatory for registration of lands in the coming days.

The Government had already decentralised powers on land related to issues at different levels in contrast to the system in the previous BRS Government when they were vested in the District Collector and the Chief Commissioner of Land Administration. Referring to the huge pendency of grievances received from the people, he said while 2.43 lakh applications were pending in the BRS Government, 3.48 lakh more were received since the Congress took over the reins.

Accordingly, directions were issued to the officials concerned to issue speaking orders in case the applications were rejected explaining the reasons behind the rejection. “We are also in the process of setting up land tribunals in the near future,” he said.

Modalities are being worked out on the number of such tribunals that need to be established. Proposals are being examined as to whether a tribunal each should be established in all the 33 districts or one tribunal each for a group of districts. The Government was also exploring options to resolve the differences between the Revenue and Forest departments over the extent of lands owned by them. “We are committed to protect the interests of podu farmers,” he averred.

Referring to regularisation of sada bainamas (land transactions on plain paper), he said a huge 9.62 lakh applications were received by the previous Government but were kept pending. It was therefore decided to examine the applications and ensure that the rights of genuine land owners were protected.