Financial constraints faced by the State government have hampered the progress of one of the most ambitious programmes proposed by the State — taking up a digital survey of the land to make the records tamper proof and ensure that they remained for ever.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao made clear his intentions to cover every inch of land across the State with geo-coordinates (longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates) for resolving pending disputes between land owners besides enabling an exact assessment of the extent of government land.
The digital survey was also aimed at addressing disputes between the departments like Revenue and Forests over the extent of land in their possession.
The government has initiated the process and identified 27 villages in which the pilot project was proposed to be launched for the digital survey last year, but the programme could not be taken up reportedly due to financial constraints. It will require anywhere between ₹400 crore and ₹600 crore for taking up the programme, according to the estimates prepared by the government.
The Central government is learnt to have agreed to extend assistance for digitisation of records and sanctioned around ₹250 crore of which ₹83 crore had been released. “We don’t want to start a new programme and get into problems, given the restrictions put in place on raising resources through borrowings,” a senior Revenue department official told The Hindu.
The department has instead decided to address the issues related to land records one by one and hence, focussed on addressing the concerns relating to Dharani raised by people. “We have decided to take up the issues one by one. The same machinery will work for digital survey of land once the financial issues are settled,” the official said.
