Guj govt halts process of finalising land records

The Gujarat government today decided to halt the process of finalising the agriculture land records of over 6,000 villages in the state following charges of irregularities and errors in the land mapping work.

This decision was taken in the cabinet meeting chaired by Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani in Gandhinagar today, state Revenue Minister Kaushik Patel told reporters.

He said although the land records of around 11,000 villages have been finalised so far, the administration would take into account all the objections and settle the issues being faced by farmers.

"We received representations from farmers and MLAs about irregularities and errors in the land re-survey process. Hence, our government has decided to halt the promulgation of land records, where re-survey has been done but promulgation was yet to be announced," Patel said after the meeting.

The land re-survey work has already got over, the minister said adding that while land records of around 11,000 villages have been finalised so far, the process was yet to start for over 6,000 villages.

"Wherever the promulgation has been already announced, we will settle all the objections raised by farmers in a satisfactory manner. We will unlock the land records and enter a note about the changes if needed," Patel said.

He said stern action would be taken against those agencies that are found guilty of laxity in carrying out the re-survey work for fresh land records.

"We have already stopped payments to the erring agencies. In the coming days, a group of ministers will meet to review the work done by these agencies. If found guilty, we will take stern action against these agencies," he said.

The Gujarat government had last year launched the survey of agriculture land records, its first such initiative since Independence. The state had appointed private agencies for this land mapping exercise.

Opposition Congress has demanded scrapping of the re-survey following complaints by farmers of irregularities and laxity in the process.