The Haryana government is planning to map urban areas and assign a unique ID to each property so that there is no illegal occupation of land. The move comes after the government mapped 6,286 villages using drones and registered ‘Lal Dora’ areas.
The term ‘Lal Dora’, which literally translates to red thread, was coined during the British regime and refers to the practice of drawing red lines on maps to demarcate agricultural areas from non-agricultural plots.
Also, plots that are referred to as ‘Lal Dora’ are not registered with the authorities and the ownership literally rests with the family that occupies the land. In the absence of any documents to prove ownership, this often leads to fights between families. The move to map areas is aimed at registering such plots.
Chief Secretary Sanjeev Kaushal said the government had so far issued over 19 lakh property IDs after registering ‘Lal Dora’ plots in the villages. In the urban areas, the government will now prepare a database of all properties in private colonies, areas under the Municipal Corporation and HSVP sectors. The data will be shared with the civic body.
The move is part of the government’s SVAMITVA scheme. After the areas are mapped, the owners of ‘Lal Dora’ plots will get proper documents. “This will help us keep a check on disputes over ownership of land,” said deputy commissioner Nishant Yadav.
Officials said since there was no ownership in the case of ‘Lal Dora’ plots, the government got no revenue for these plots. In the absence of documents, settlements started coming up on grounds, near drains and ponds. This led to unplanned development. These areas were not governed by any building bylaw. The creation of IDs will now help the owners of ‘Lal Dora’ plots to get loans against their properties.
