CM K Chandrasekhar Rao sets ball rolling on digital land survey

HYDERABAD: Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao directed officials concerned on Thursday to invite tenders for a comprehensive digital land survey across the State using geographic coordinate system. When the new Revenue Act was adopted in the Assembly, the CM had assured that the coordinate system would be used for the survey.

Rao said the Dharani portal was successful and the registration and mutation of agriculture lands was being done in a transparent manner. As there were changes in the functioning of the Revenue department, there was a need to prepare a job chart for the employees, he said. The functions of revenue inspector (RI), tahsildar and revenue divisional officer (RDO) would be notified shortly by the government, Rao said.

At a review meeting, Rao said corruption had been rooted out from the Revenue department after the launch of Dharani portal. Land-related disputes and litigations had decreased considerably, he said. “Those lands which are uploaded on Dharani can be registered. Even the Chief Commissioner of Land Administration (CCLA) or the Chief Secretary cannot change the records on Dharani portal. Farmers are also happy now as there is no human interface in registrations,” the CM said. Those who could not digest registrations happening in a transparent manner were spreading canards against Dharani, Rao said. He said the remaining minor land-related problems will be resolved once the digital survey of lands was taken up and every land would get geographic coordinates, which could not be changed by anyone.

The CM also assured that the status of forest lands and podu lands too would be resolved soon. He recalled that countries whose land records were purified saw a three to four per cent growth in GDP. Hence the State had decided to take up the revolutionary land survey, he said.

Nomenclature will change

The CM said the Revenue department was once used to collect revenue from farmers, but the government was not doing so. Instead, it was paying Rs 10,000 per acre to farmers under Rythu Bandhu. As the functioning of the department changed from collecting money to paying money, the name of the department too would be changed, the CM said.