Panel will be set up to bring land laws up to date: Kerala Revenue Minister

A panel will be set up to study the revision of land laws to bring them up to date, Minister for Revenue A.P. Anil Kumar has said. Replying to questions on revision of laws and digitisation of the Revenue department in the Assembly on Monday, the Minister said many laws related to land in the State were decades old. Steps for revising the laws would be taken on the basis of the panel report.

The Revenue Minister also informed the Assembly that steps would be taken to unify the fair value across the State. The department, he said, would take strong action to implement Land Reforms 2.0 that was proposed in the Revised Budget. In this regard, the government would frame a legislation whereby marginalised sections who did not gain much from the first land reforms would benefit.

The government, Mr. Anil Kumar underscored, would take all steps for total digitisation of the Revenue department. Resurvey of 10.42 lakh hectares of land across 72.73 lakh land parcels had been completed as part of the Rebuild Kerala scheme.

Digital resurvey

Digital resurvey activities had been launched in 839 of the 1,550 villages to be surveyed as part of Rebuild Kerala. The survey had been completed and final map notified under Section 13 of the Kerala Survey and Boundaries Act in 228 villages.

The survey had been completed and draft notification published under Section 9(2) of the Kerala Survey and Boundaries Act in 146 villages. The resurvey was under way in 221 villages and yet to begin in 711 villages. In 244 villages, initial activities such as record collection and digitisation were on.

The Minister said district-level adalats would be conducted for taking a speedy decision on at least 25,000 of the two lakh applications for land conversion that were pending across the State. The government was also considering steps to address shortage of surveyors and expediting digital survey, Mr. Anil Kumar said.