BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi has approved amendments to the Odisha Survey and Settlement Rules to address issues faced by land buyers and sellers.
The proposed amendment will allow buyers who purchased land before settlement operations to apply directly to the tehsildar concerned for settlement of their Record of Rights (RoR), eliminating the need to approach higher authorities and making the process more efficient and hassle-free.
At present, the settlement officer issues the RoR to buyers before settlement operations. However, if the RoR or deed of conveyance (including sale deeds or title documents) is not settled in the buyer’s name, they have to appeal to the Board of Revenue or the authorised Revision Court. Due to the heavy workload of these bodies, such appeals often remain pending for years.
With the approved amendment, tehsildars will now be empowered to settle the RoR in buyers’ names, removing the need to approach the Board of Revenue. This, according to the Chief Minister’s Office, will save people considerable time and money.
Since the Board of Revenue is based in Cuttack, applicants from across the state currently have to travel long distances to pursue RoR settlement cases. The amendment is therefore seen as a major citizen-centric reform by the revenue department.
Recently, the chief minister also inaugurated new sub-registrar offices at 44 tehsils across 13 districts, enabling people to register their land locally instead of visiting district headquarters. As of now, 261 of the 317 tehsils in the state have land registration facilities.
