Deputy Commissioner Fouzia Taranum addressing a media conference in Kalaburagi on Wednesday.
| Photo Credit: ARUN KULKARNI
The Revenue Department’s ambitious initiative to link RTCs (Record of Rights, Tenancy and Crops) to Aadhaar of landowners has received a good response with 4.77 lakh farmers opting for the facility.
Addressing a media conference at her office here on Wednesday, Deputy Commissioner Fouzia Taranum said that 67% of RTCs in the district have been linked to Aadhaar of landowners and the remaining land records will be covered by the end of next month.
“We have 8,76,177 RTCs (Pahani) in the district and 4,77,143 of them are seeded with Aadhaar of landowners. RTC-Aadhaar seeding is a revolutionary initiative as it safeguards land from fraudulent and illegal transactions through fake documents. It helps in quick selling or buying of land as the details of land and its owner are easily available. It also helps the administration disburse crop loss compensation, drought and flood relief and other benefits to landowners quickly and easily,” Ms. Taranum said.
In the process, she added, the administration found that 41,489 landed property have been converted by the Village Administrative Officers (VAO) and that 67,375 landowners are dead.
“With complete information of revenue land on our fingertips, we can now easily address many land-related issues. We are planning to launch a Pouti campaign, a special drive to transfer land of owners who have died to their legal heirs, on this year’s Independence Day. In many cases, legal heirs of dead landowners don’t get land transferred in their names just because of administrative hurdles. We, as a proactive administration, will do the job for them,” she said.
To a question, Ms. Taranum said that seeding Aadhaar with RTCs has been done with the consent of landowners as it is not mandatory.
“It is not mandatory but only optional. However, I appeal to farmers to get RTCs-Aadhaar seeding done as it safeguards land from illegal transactions and helps landowners get various government benefits such as drought and flood relief quickly,” she said.
Survey
In another significant move to safeguard government property from encroachments, the district administration has completed a survey of 29,954 property of the total 31,972 property.
“Each government property is mapped in the Land Beat App using GPS coordinates. Our officials have been tasked with visits to land to check for encroachments, if any. They report such issues directly from the spot using the software and take steps to remove encroachments, if any. Village Administrative Officers will visit each government land at least once in three months for inspection and report to tahsildars using the App. We have 31,972 government landed property in the district and 29,954 of them have been identified so far for 93.69% achievement. We have completed geofencing for such identified land. We will complete the task by this month-end,” she said.
Additional Deputy Commissioner Rayappa Hunasagi and other senior officers were present.
