Minister for Revenue and Housing E. Chandrasekharan has asked officers to take stringent action against those who were found to be engaged in encroaching revenue land.
Addressing Revenue officials at a meeting organised to review issues related with the department here on Friday, Mr. Chandrasekharan said the State was faced with a situation where the landless still remained landless while those who owned land were engaged in unauthorised encroachment of government land.
He pointed out that many of the landless who had received title deeds as part of various programmes were yet to receive their land. The government would accord top priority to such cases, he said and asked the officials to identify government land for distribution. Mr. Chandrasekharan said that the government would resume the process of resurvey immediately so that the excess land thus identified could be distributed among the landless.
The Minister asked District Collector C.A. Latha to initiate a drive to identify issues that could be settled at the district-level itself.
The Minister also discussed the issues involved in the regularisation of the Kerala Conservation of Paddy land and Wetland Act. He also discussed the anomalies in the e-district project and the need to upgrade the software used for the purpose.
Amendments
Earlier speaking to mediapersons, Mr. Chandrasekharan said that the government was seriously thinking of amending the Paddy and Wetland Conservation Act, making it possible for those who have converted paddy land for the purpose of construction of houses to do so. At present a number of people who had converted land for housing purpose are facing difficulties while those who had converted it for commercial purpose get away with it, he said.
Meanwhile, addressing the State conference of the Survey Office Technical Employees’ Union, the Minister said the process of resurvey would have to be completed in a time-bound manner. So far the survey has been completed in 881 villages. The process would be taken up in a time- bound manner in the remaining 783 villages. Modern technology would have to be used for the purpose, he said.
