THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With lakhs of rupees yet to be recovered from leased lands, especially from educational and charitable institutions, the state government has started collecting data on leased properties and aims to take aggressive action against defaulters.
"We will categorise the leased land and take action against all defaulters,’’ said Land Revenue Joint Commissioner N Padmakumar, who head the committee constituted to review leased properties.
Noting that some of the defaulters have filed cases, he said the government has decided to take up the cases very aggressively. All the defaulters, including individual land holdings, plantations, educational and charitable institutions, will come under the purview of the data collection, he added.
The government constituted the committee with Revenue Principal Secretary, Law Secretary and Land Revenue Commissioner as members to review the leased properties, as lakhs of rupees in rent to the government was pending. This was observed in a CAG report filed last year.
Apart from the arrears, it has also been estimated that thousands of acres are lying unused. The government is of the view that the lease on such lands should be cancelled and the government should reclaim the land. A highly placed source in the revenue department said the government is yet to make a record of lands leased out and of lands that are in violation of the lease agreement. In a reply to the Assembly in 2016, the government has agreed to compile these.
The source said the venture will help towards obtaining comprehensive data. According to the government, about 65,000 acres in the state have been leased out for various purposes. The revenue officer also pointed out the lands leased out during the time of Travancore and Kochi kings were even not accounted for after Independence. And many of the lands that were on lease have now been transferred.
Land Board records state arrears to the tune of more than Rs 100 crores are pending from various educational institutions, estates, clubs, societies, municipalities, religious and community institutions, corporations and cooperative institutions. This excludes the plantation tax pending for the last many years which could come to around Rs 10,000 crore, the revenue officer said.