Chief Minister  K Chandrashekhar Rao has decided to conduct digital survey of agriculture lands in the State. As part of it, initially, the CM said a pilot digital survey should be conducted from June11. For this, he has instructed Chief Secretary  Somesh Kumar to select 27 villages all over the State and of which, three villages should be from Gajwel Assembly Constituency. The rest 24 should be from the 24 districts in the State.

The CM held a review meeting on Wednesday at PragathiBhavan on digital survey issue with representatives from the survey agencies. In this programme, MP  Ranjit Reddy, MLC and RythuBandhuSamithi State President  PallaRajeshwar Reddy, MLA  MagantiGopinath, Former Speaker State legislative Assembly  Madhusudhanachary, Chief Secretary  Somesh Kumar, CM Principal Secretary S Narsing Rao, CM Secretaries  V Seshadri,  Bhoopal Reddy, Principal Secretary (IT)  JayeshRanjan, DGP  Mahender Reddy, Transco, Genco CMD  D Prabhakar Rao, Survey and Land Commissioner  Shashidhar, TSTS MD  Venkateswara Rao, representatives of Digital Survey Agencies participated.

Speaking on the occasion, the CM said, “We have brought in Dharani Portal only to protect the land rights of the poor. With an aim to make Telangana state, a land disputes-free state, the state government is conducting the digital survey of the agriculture lands. The government’s aim is to conduct digital survey of agriculture lands in the state, fix the coordinates and there by provide total security and protection to the pattadars on a permanent basis. The CM clearly instructed the survey agencies to conduct the digital survey efficiently as it was part of the government aim to provide protection to people’s right on land and also understand the good intention of the government behind it. He also advised them not to view this assignment from a commercial point alone but treat this as a social service being rendered to the farmers.

The CM said that initially, the pilot survey should be done in the villages where there are no land disputes. Later in the villages where there are govt lands and forest department lands. In other words, the survey should be conducted in a mixed bunch of villages where there are no disputes and where there are disputes and get the field level experience on the matter. After this, the CM wanted total guidelines on the Digital Survey should be prepared for the total survey in the state. He wanted the survey of the agriculture lands should be taken up first and later the urban lands.

“We have achieved Telangana and are excelling in every sector. We are providing water by constructing irrigation projects. Telangana has come to a position where it is producing more Paddy than Punjab. In this backdrop, land rates are also skyrocketing. The government has taken steps to protect people’s land. As part of it, the government has introduced Dharani portal, a totally transparent system which removed totally the role of middlemen, the corruption and the system which used to fleece the farmers. The Dharani Portal has overcome the early hiccups and is working very efficiently. It has evoked appreciation from the common people that they are able to complete the registration process and other land related transactions without any harassment,” the CM said.

He said with agriculture lands disputes in the villages have cleared with the Dharani Portal as on date, the proposed digital survey would be cent percent successful.

The CM discussed with the survey agencies on the guidelines for the survey. He has inquired with them about the proposed action plan in depth. He suggested to them that state of the art technology should be utilized so that there should not be any dispute over even an inch of the land. He also said that it would be responsibility of the survey agencies to conduct the survey perfectly and any laxity on their part, the government would not hesitate to take action against them.

He wanted them to conduct the survey based on the traditional method of “Tippan Survey”. He also suggested that Gram Sabha should be conducted to create awareness among the people on the survey and conduct the survey. He said the government would extend its cooperation in this regard from time to time. The Collectors, MLAs and MPs and other public representatives would be available to cooperate with the survey. He reiterated that the entire responsibility of the survey rests with the agencies.

In this context, the CM explained about the qualitative changes that have taken place in the land administration for the thousands of years. “When man was primitive man there was no right on land. The land rights concept came to existence when man started agriculture. From then on wards several changes took place on the land rights from the time of kingdoms to the democratic phase. In tune with change in times, the government should also update themselves as far as protection of land rights areconcerned. Utilizing the latest technology, measures should be taken to protect people’s lands. The Telangana government is precisely doing this. I have explained the historical background to you so that you will understand the aim of the government and plan the action plan accordingly,” the CM said to the survey agencies.

The CM said in the countries where the land disputes are settled, their GDP went up 3 to 4 per cent. After achieving the Telangana state one of the issues that were not settled by the former rulers among others was land disputes. Even if we make a small mistake, the future generation would have to pay heavily. The Telangana government has embarked on land survey keeping in view the experiences of past rulers and ensures that people are not made to pay for the mistakes of the rulers. He said the agriculture sector in the state was stabilized with schemes like RythuBandhu to help farmers and providing water for irrigation to them. He said the state government, which stabilized sectors, like Education, Health and irrigation water, is taking up the digital survey so that future generations would not suffer from the land disputes.