THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As the digital resurvey is continuing in four villages in Thiruvananthapuram corporation limits, more than 20,000 people in these places are running from pillar to post to pay their land tax dues. They are also unable to sell their plots as they have to produce the land tax receipts from the village offices concerned.
Currently, a digital resurvey is going on in Vanchiyoor, Pattom, Muttada and Kowdiar. The resurvey has been initiated and the details are being digitised to replace the old data in the physical files. A senior citizen belonging to Vanchiyoor village has close to 20 cents of land as per the title deed. But the resurvey found that he had got close to three cents of land more making it a 15% increase in land area.
As per the 2021 government circular, the land revenue tahsildar can approve the land tax if the excess area found comes to less than 5% and inform the respective village office. If it is above 5%, the file has to be sent to the district collector for approval.
When the landowner realised that there is an increase of 15% in the land area following the resurvey, he approached the collector. “The district collector informed us that the file has been returned to the government as the collectorate officials are in the dark as to what to do next. What is the point in initiating a mammoth exercise if the state government itself doesn’t know how it can be addressed? A senior land revenue official told me that 13,000 landowners have been left in the lurch which shows that the government has derailed the revenue norms prevalent in Thiruvananthapuram district,” an aggrieved landowner told TNIE.
However, State Land Revenue Commissioner K Biju clarified that only the landowners who have got extra land following the resurvey have been affected. He told TNIE that they can sell their land as per their existing title deeds.
“The aggrieved party’s situation comes under the land revenue management as he has got extra land following the digital resurvey. So, he can go ahead and sell the area mentioned in his original property document first as per the established procedure. Once the new procedure on the extra piece of land is completed, he can pay the tax and sell it later,” said Biju.
He also said more than 20,000 applications from landowners are pending as they are facing the same issue of having more land following the digital resurvey. The Land Revenue Commissionerate will take up the complaints one by one.