At a time when acquisition of land for public purposes has almost become synonymous with fraud and cheating, the Revenue department has a taken a big step forward to not only prevent hoodwinking of land owners and buyers but also ensure speedy acquisition.
Land acquisition process has recently become totally online in the department. It has developed a new software “Bhoo Swadheena” by integrating the acquisition process with the Bhoomi, the computerised land records system.
“The online system has simplified the entire process. The department has now completely done away with the manual system of acquiring land in the State. From issuing preliminary notification to the final award, all processes get recorded automatically in Record of Rights, Tenancy and Crops (RTC). The government has issued directions to all the departments to adopt the system,” Commissioner for Survey, Settlement and Land Records V Ponnuraj said.
Fraud prevention
The biggest advantage of the new system is that it prevents frauds. Under the manual system, there used to be a long delay in updating RTC after the issue of preliminary/final notification.
As a result, land owners in many instances used to illegally sell the notified or acquired land.
In some cases, the owners, especially farmers, would not even be aware that their lands have been notified for acquisition.
Touts and fraudsters used to take advantage of the delay in updating ownership status in RTC, he said.
Speedy acquisition
A majority of the legal disputes related to land acquisition is due to owners and touts trying to sell the notified land illegally. There are many instances wherein various government agencies have acquired the same piece of land twice. Moreover, the new ‘Bhoo Swadheena’ software has put a brake on all illegalities and confusions, he added.
Moreover, the new system ensures speedy completion of the acquisition process. Normally, it takes two-and-a-half to three years to complete the process, including payment of compensation to land losers, under the manual system, Ponnuraj said.
Working of new system
Under the new system, the deputy commissioner issues direction to the assistant commissioner (AC) to take up the acquisition on receiving a land acquisition plan from a government agency.
The AC will identify the land to be acquired with survey numbers on the Bhoo Swadheena software and issues preliminary notification (commonly known as 41 notification).
RTCs related to all the notified land automatically gets updated. Copy of the notification will be generated from the same software, officials said.