VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh Land Titling Act will be further strengthened by taking into view the opinions from all sections, said Minister for Revenue, Stamps, and Registration Dharmana Prasada Rao. Speaking to the media at the secretariat here on Tuesday, he said that only after the updating of the revenue records the new Act will be brought into implementation, hence there is no need for people, particularly advocates, to have any apprehensions about the Act.
Citing a study, Dharmana said 66% of the cases pending in civil courts pertaining to land disputes and 93% of those cases are related to the people with annual income less than Rs 1 lakh and for the legal battle alone they are spending Rs 27,000. “As per the NCRB records 14% of murders and 60% of crimes are related to land disputes,” he added.
Elaborating on the need for the new Act, he said in 1989, to ensure guarantee to land rights, the then planning commission appointed a one man committee headed by Prof DC Wadhwa to study Records of Rights in Land. “Wadhwa studied the land records status across the country and submitted a preliminary report in 1990, recommending a new system that guarantees land title in place of the existing system of land records. It was observed that due to lack of any guarantee for revenue records, land/property disputes are happening and the new system would help in not only reducing the land disputes but also attracting investments,” the minister explained.
In this backdrop, the Central government has decided to bring in a title guarantee system by 2024 across the State as part of Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme (DILRMP) and prepared a draft for the same in 2019 and NITI Aayog communicated guidelines to all the states, Dharmana elaborated.
“Following those guidelines, the Andhra Pradesh government, keeping the larger interest of the public in view, brought out the Andhra Pradesh Land Titling Act. Taking it as an inspiration, eight larger states, including Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, have brought out similar Acts in their respective states. Not only that Land Titling Act, guaranteeing the land rights are being implemented in not less than 175 countries,” he elaborated.
Speaking about the efforts being taken by the State government, he said, “As part of the new Act, YSR Jagananna Saswatha Bhu Hakku mariyu Bhu Raksha scheme is being implemented in the State using the latest technologies and equipment. In a phased manner it is being carried out in 17,000 villages and in 4,000 villages it has been completed. The survey will be completed in the rest of the villages at the earliest.”
Asserting that the revenue records will be updated without any scope for disputes, thorough this survey, he clarified that only after updating the revenue records the new Act will be notified for implementation. It will take some six-seven months for the process to be completed, the minister claimed.
The minister further explained that there are some writ petitions and PILs filed in the High Court and people including advocates are agitating. Stating the government will follow the directions of the court with regard to the new Act, he asserted that the new Act will not create any new problems, but ensure security of the lands and right of the land holders.