Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao today decided that a digital survey of agricultural lands in the state would be started soon.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao today decided at a review meeting held at the Pragathi Bhavan that a digital survey of agricultural lands in the state would be started soon.
As part of this, initially, the CM instructed the relevant officials, including Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, to conduct a pilot digital survey from June 11. For this pilot survey, Kumar was asked to select 27 villages from across the state. Of these, three villages were to be chosen from the Gajwel Assembly constituency while the rest of the 24 were to be picked from among the 24 districts.
"We have achieved statehood for Telangana. Now, we are excelling in every sector. We are providing water by constructing irrigation projects. Telangana has come to a position where it is producing more paddy than Punjab today. In this backdrop, land prices are also skyrocketing. The government has taken steps to protect people's land rights. As part of this effort, we have introduced the Dharani portal, a totally transparent system that has eliminated the role of middlemen and corrupt systems which were earlier used to fleece the farmers. The portal has overcome all its early hiccups and is functioning efficiently. It has garnered appreciation from the people as they are able to complete the registration process and other land-related transactions without any harassment or undue delays," the CM said.
"We launched the Dharani portal to protect the land rights of the poor. Next, we hope to make Telangana a land dispute-free state. To achieve this, we will be conducting a digital survey of the state's agricultural lands. Our aim is to conduct the survey, fix the coordinates and thereby provide total security and protection to the pattadars on a permanent basis," he explained.
KCR clearly instructed the survey agencies to carry out the survey efficiently and advised them not to view the assignment from a commercial standpoint alone but treat it as a social service being rendered to the farmers of Telangana, and added, "Initially, the pilot survey should be done in the villages where there are no land disputes. Later, the villages where there are government lands and forest department lands will be surveyed. In other words, the plot study should be conducted across a mixed bunch of villages - in those that have no disputes as well as those that do. Officials should get a comprehensive field-level view on the matter."
After this, the CM wanted the officials to prepare the guidelines for the digital survey.
Speaking to various survey agencies, he enquired about the guidelines for the proposed project and an action plan for the same. He encouraged them to use state-of-the-art technology for it to minimise any disputes over "even an inch of land".
KCR also said that it would be the responsibility of the survey agencies to conduct the survey perfectly and any laxity on their part would be severely dealt with, and suggested that Gram Sabhas be conducted to create awareness among the people regarding the survey effort.
He said the government would extend its cooperation in this regard, and said that Collectors, MLAs and MPs and other public representatives would help with the survey but reiterated that the primary responsibility of the same lay on the shoulders of the agencies.
MP Ranjit Reddy, MLC and state Rythu Bandhu Samithi President Palla Rajeshwar Reddy, MLA Maganti Gopinath, former Legislative Assembly Speaker S Madusudhana Chary, Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, Principal Secretary to the CM S Narsing Rao, CM Secretaries V Seshadri and Bhoopal Reddy, Principal Secretary (IT) Jayesh Ranjan, DGP M Mahender Reddy, representatives from TRANSCO and GENCO, Survey and Land Commissioner Shashidhar, TSTS MD Venkateswara Rao, and representatives of some digital survey agencies attended the meeting.