HYDERABAD: As majority of the farmers in the state are still illiterate, in order to prevent them from being cheated by middlemen and moneylenders, the state government is heralding a new era by extending paperless administration, recently introduced in the revenue department, even to rural areas.
The state government, which had launched 'Mee Bhoomi', a digital depository of land records, making all agricultural land details along with Adangal/Pahani and 1-B details, available to the people online, is taking steps to ensure that pattadar passbooks are not mandatory for the farmers to get their agricultural lands registered in the state as well as to avail crop loans from the banks.
Recently passed Andhra Pradesh Rights in Land and Pattadar Pass Books (Amendment) Act, 2016, amending the AP Rights in Land and Pattadar Passbooks Act, 1971, to facilitate this new initiative will come into force from June 1.
As per the amended Act, pattadar passbooks are not needed for farmers to get their agricultural lands registered. Concerned revenue officials will have to register the property based on revenue records maintained electronically in the 'webland' portal (http://webland.ap.gov.in/). Similarly, it would be optional for the owners of agricultural land to obtain physical copy of the Passbook/Title Deed.
"The newly passed Act ends the practice of insisting on physical records like pattadar passbooks with regard to land ownership for extending loans to farmers. The government has taken this decision to bring down corruption in revenue department," deputy chief minister KE Krishnamurthy, who is holding revenue portfolio, said. The minister recalled that in the present system, farmers are facing problems in getting agricultural loans from banks. The reason is that they have to submit passbooks along with other certificates from the revenue officials to prove their ownership over their land.
As the land records have been digitised and maintained in the 'webland' portal, the pattadar passbooks are available in electronic form. Hence, the government wants to make available the digitised records to banker's so that they could give loans on the basis of electronic data, without insisting on physical records of farmers' ownership. "June 1 onwards, concerned bankers will have to grant loans to farmers based on the electron data kept in the 'webland' portal, which has been integrated with the registration department," he added.