Steps taken to settle cases related to land boards to free up land for redistribution, says Pinarayi
Steps taken to settle cases related to land boards to free up land for redistribution, says Pinarayi
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan launched the digital resurvey of land across Kerala as part of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government’s policy of ‘land for all, document for all and smart delivery of services’, at a function held in the capital on Tuesday.
Reiterating the government’s commitment to providing land for all, he said that steps had been taken to settle cases related to land boards to free up land for redistribution.
3.41 lakh landless people
“In the past six years, the government was able to distribute 2.25 lakh title deeds. When a survey was conducted as part of the LIFE housing project, 3.41 lakh landless people were identified. To provide at least 3 cents of land to each of these families, we would need 10,500 acres of land. By settling cases related to the land boards, we can make available 8,210 acres of land for distribution,” he said.
He said that the completion of the digital resurvey process would enable the public to get all land-related services quickly and transparently, and without visiting the offices multiple times.
“The people evaluate the government’s functioning based on the performance of the departments that they interact with the most. The Revenue department happens to be one of those. With the shift to digital delivery of services, we will be able to ensure that there will not be any complaints for the public. However, there also has to be a change in mindset. Even when a majority of the employees are taking a people-friendly approach, we have to pay attention to the isolated complaints. The department has no need to support the few who take a different approach,” said Mr. Vijayan.
He said that in the past 55 years, the State was able to complete survey proceedings in only 55% of the villages. At that pace, it would take 50 more years to complete the process. This could further delay the developmental and welfare activities of the government. The digital resurvey was launched to overcome this problem. The process would be completed in 1,550 out of a total of 1,666 villages in the State in the next four years. The Revenue department had taken steps to recruit 4,700 contract employees, including 1,500 surveyors and 3,200 helpers, through the employment exchange to execute the resurvey. In addition to the information required for the Revenue department, databases which would be useful for all the departments would be prepared through the process. All the land-related services of the Survey, Revenue and Registration departments would be available for the public through ‘Ente Bhoomi’, an online single window portal.
