?The AP government's recent memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Hyderabad-based Nalsar’s Centre for Tribal and Land Rights (CTLR) is seen as a step in the right direction because CTLR has acquired expertise in the areas or rights of people over land and various areas
AP is moving towards the purification of land records to reach a stage in the future where the state would stand as a guarantor to every genuine patta holder. It took up a massive land resurvey project for this purpose at the cost of Rs 1,000 crore which has been planned to be completed within three years.
The State Government has taken up the task with the required seriousness because purifying 100-year-old land records would through up new challenges at the field level that might surface in courts as litigation.
To avoid this, the state has amended the Pattadar Passbook Act (Record of Rights and Surveys and Boundaries Act to enable the official machinery to complete its task at a brisk pace. Massive digitisation would lessen litigation in the future, he said. The records of both rural and urban land and property records would be digitised.
Every parcel of land in the state is going to be surveyed and numbered with geo-quadrants. This task was handled and partly completed by the British in 1918, M Sunil Kumar. Advisor to the CTLR said.
This project requires a lot of legal support in drafting, reviewing, and preparing legal documents. It also involves tasks like imparting, training, undertaking legal research, resolving land disputes, and spreading legal awareness among farmers.