AP plans in-depth land survey

• Govt to do away with adangal, ajmaish system of land records
• To issue e-pattadar passbooks to farmers
• Allocates Rs.45 cr for protecting govt lands
• Online marriage registrations from Oct 2

Hyderabad: The revenue department is conducting a comprehensive survey of the government land in the residuary Andhra Pradesh and decided to do away with the centuries old adangal and ajmaish system of land records.

Efforts are also being made to protect these lands from encroachment. An amount of Rs 45.69 crore has been sanctioned in the budget for protecting high value lands, which will have compound walls and boundary pillars.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, Minister for Revenue and Deputy Chief Minister K E Krishnamurthy said as per the reports sent by the District Collectors, 1,931 properties measuring 5,691 acres and costing Rs 4,070 crore needed immediate protection.

The Minister said initiative has been taken to document the status of all these government lands. As on date, more than 21 lakh parcels of land data have been uploaded. Remaining would be completed by the end of October. The data base would be utilised for implementation of government schemes and projects, the Minister added. Similarly 32,872 acres of government land was identified in all the 13 districts within 10 km radius of district headquarters, he informed.

He said for the first time in the country ‘e-pattadar passbook’ has been introduced for the agricultural land holders that has 13 security features. The passbooks are digitally signed and machine generated based on the land data.

“A policy decision has been taken to seed the Aadhaar numbers with land holders account numbers and there is proposal to issue only one passbook for each khatadar for all agriculture lands held by the individual anywhere in the State,” the Minister said. So far, 400 farmers were given these books.

He said, to operationalise the new Land Acquisition Act, the revenue department issued a GO on September 15 inviting suggestions from people within 30 days.

On online registration of marriage, the Minister informed it would come into force from October 2 and people could send advance registration notice to the sub-registrar office.

He said Rs 2,400 crore was shown as income from registration and stamps department and so far an amount of Rs 1,189 crore was earned achieving 43 per cent of the target.

Of the 209 sub-registrar offices, 169 buildings were own and remaining were operating from rented buildings. An amount of Rs 7 crore has been sanctioned for constructing 13 buildings in the first phase, the Minister said.

AP Dy CM sulks over new capital
Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Revenue K E Krishnamurthy parried questions on why he opted out of the Cabinet committee formed on land acquisition for developing capital around Vijayawada. The question was put to him when he claimed that the Revenue Department had a critical role to play in identifying lands and acquiring them for the capital, during a press conference here on Wednesday. The Minister said he was approached by Chief Minister twice to be part of the Cabinet committee but he refused.

Attributing no reason, he said two committees were formed consisting of senior officials from the Revenue Department and they would submit entire details of lands around Vijayawada and methods to be adopted for acquisition within a short period.

“There is no specific reason for my opting out of the Cabinet committee,”' the Minister told the reporters. Resentment was visible on the face of the veteran leader from Rayalaseema, who vouched for Kurnool as the new capital, when Chief Minister named Vijayawada in the Cabinet meeting held on September 1.

On the eve of this Cabinet meeting, Krishnamurthy said the new capital would be in the heart of Andhra Pradesh and need not be geographically central to the State.