Vice President urges governments to simplify land laws, procedures

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu Sunday said there should be minimal interface between people and officials dealing with land issues, to eliminate corruption, and urged the Centre and state governments to simplify land transaction procedures and make them transparent.

Releasing a book, titled "Land Registration, Global Practices & Lessons for India", Naidu also said "age-old" laws require amendments from time-to-time.

"I feel that the interface between the people and the officials dealing with land issues, including registration, has to be minimal to eliminate corruption. All states and the Centre should move in the direction of simplifying the procedures and making them totally transparent," the vice president said.

He also said that states will have to make mammoth changes in the administrative and legal setup relating to land records and land transactions as there was "not much happening on the ground".

"...The Government of India has taken a policy decision to change-over to the system of conclusive title in the country but the states are not very confident in going for such a massive change in the legal system.

"Consequently, while this issue frequently finds mention in the reports of experts and the policies of the government, not much is happening on the ground," he said.

Written by the Chief Secretary of Himachal Pradesh, B K Agarwal, and published by Pentagon Press, the book deals with a whole gamut of issues relating to land registration systems and makes a comparative analysis of the prevailing systems in India and six developed nations -- Germany, UK, Australia, the USA, France, and the Netherlands.

The vice president added that issue of land grabbing needed to be considered with great concern.

"The laws particularly regarding the land and revenue matters are age-old and required amendments from time-to-time to suit the prevailing situation in our country.

"Moreover, rapid urbanization and the lust of grabbing more and more land for posterity are of great concerns and need to be addressed by taking corrective measures within due course of time," he said.