BHUBANESWAR: In a major initiative, the state government is exploring the feasibility of auto-mutation of land records in the name of legal heirs of property owners after their death.
Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari revealed this during a media briefing at Puri when his attention was drawn to problems faced by the people in mutation matters.
Acknowledging that a great deal of change is required for simplifying revenue laws, Pujari said even after several generations, landed properties are still recorded in the name of the forefathers of people. While in some cases formal application have not been made by legal heirs for change of ownership, in others the landed property has not been transferred to subsequent generations. It becomes a humongous task to obtain legal rights over landed property if the same has not been transferred to legal heirs by the owner before his or her death, he said.
“I have asked my department officers to find out if it will be possible to do auto-mutation of land records in favour of legal heirs after the death of property owner. Whether it will be possible to link the tehsil offices with the office of the Registrar General of India to get death information so that auto-mutation of land records in the names of legal heirs of the deceased can be done, is to be explored,” Pujari said.
The Revenue minister further said that he had requested the Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court to share information on land-related cases pending in different courts of the state.
“We are also exploring the possibility of using modern technology in resolving land-related disputes be it government, endowment or private land. The government will take all possible steps to simplify revenue laws for the benefit of people,” he added.
Responding to a query on recovery of Jagannath temple land from unauthorised occupation, the minister said the department has initiated the process for recovering land of all temples in the state, and government land from the clutches of land grabbers.
He said only landless people occupying government land for residential purpose will be spared and action will be taken against the rest including influential people who have encroached upon government land. Such eviction process has started from Jharsuguda district by demolishing illegal constructions and the action will continue, he said.
“There are also several instances in which land allotted by the state government to industries are not being used for years together. In some cases, only five per cent of the total allotted land has been used. The government will take steps to recover the unused land from industries,” he added.