BHUBANESWAR: Government land leased out to individuals or organisations for non-agricultural, commercial and industrial purposes with ‘sthitiban’ status in the record-of-rights (RoR) now stand to lose the tag.
The state government has instructed all collectors to change the status of the leasehold properties to ‘pattadar’ in the RoR in a time-bound manner and report compliance with the Revenue and Disaster Management department. The move to rectify ‘sattva’ (status) in RoR of leasehold government land came in the wake of misuse of such land causing legal issues and increased litigations.
“It has come to the notice of the government that in some cases, lease of government land sanctioned in favour of various organisations, entrepreneurs, industrial and commercial concerns, public sector undertaking, corporation and local authorities for non-agricultural purposes have been wrongly and illegally recorded in ‘sthitiban’ status in the RoR. This wrong recording of leasehold land is a serious illegality and irregularity and causing serious problems,” the June 19 order of Revenue department said.
‘Sthitiban’ status is accorded in the RoR only when government land is leased out for agriculture process. However, at the time of execution of lease deed of government land for non-agricultural purposes, the status of the land is recorded as ‘pattadar’ and not as ‘sthitiban’. In such cases, a lease deed is executed by laying down the terms and conditions of the lease and use of the land is governed by such terms, the order issued to all collectors said.
“In order to ensure the integrity of the land records and protect the government land, it is imperative to undertake a careful scrutiny of RoRs relating to leasehold properties of government and rectify those wrong recordings, wherever detected,” additional chief secretary, Revenue DK Singh said in the letter.
The collectors have been asked to instruct all tehsildars to verify RoRs of leasehold government land and rectify the records to ‘pattadar’ status. The additional district magistrate (revenue) will lead this effort and provide a certificate of completion with countersignature of the collector concerned. They have been asked to submit action taken report within a month.