Efforts on to end graft in Revenue Deputy

Vijayawada: Deputy Chief Minister and Revenue Minister K E Krishna Murthy here on Thursday said the level of corruption came down significantly but rampant malpractice was still prevalent in the Revenue department.

Speaking to the media after the review meeting with the Revenue officials, Krishna Murthy said that the State government was planning to conduct an overall survey of lands.

As the survey was not conducted after 1960 and the State was bifurcated in 2014, the State government feels that a detailed survey is essential, he added.

He said that the State government had already sent a proposal to the Centre to fund the survey. The survey would put extra burden of Rs 870 crore on the State exchequer, which was sought from the Central government, he said and asserted that the Centre must help the State particularly in the light of the problems that the State was facing after bifurcation.

The Deputy Chief Minister said that the State was also planning to conduct “Land Adalat” across the State to collect, verify the land data, prepare maps and documents, record survey numbers and provide geo-tagging. He said that the government had already digitised the land records and the proposed ‘Land Adalat’ would help in having a detailed land data, which would have no scope for the land disputes.

Krishna Murthy said that the department is also modernising the survey wing, which determines the measurements of the lands. He said that the surveyors are being trained to use technology across the State and the ‘Electronic Total Station’ (ETS) machines have been introduced in the department to survey the lands.

He said that so far, 2,364 licensed surveyors were given training in using ETS. He said that they surveyed over 6.4 lakh acres using the new technology.

He said that the Revenue department was also providing Dual Global Positioning System (DGPS) machines for every district. The DGPS would help the department to have accurate survey of the lands including the boundaries, he added.

The Deputy Chief Minister claimed that the digitisation had helped the government to bring down the corruption. Referring to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s displeasure over 42 per cent corruption in the department, Krishna Murthy said that it was because of the 10-year Congress rule.

The Deputy Chief Minster said that the Revenue department was using technology in a big way so as to reduce public interface and thereby curb corruption.

His revelation came at a time when the TDP government has been gloating over ‘Perception Survey’ which strangely claimed that 74 per cent of households felt either there was no corruption in the State or it has reduced.

Only nine per cent felt corruption had increased in the TDP government, according to the survey conducted by State Planning Department across the State in May.

Special Chief Secretary J C Sarma and Commissioner of Survey, Settlements and Land Records G Vani Mohan and other officials were present.