After 130 yrs, state to re-survey all land holdings at a cost of Rs 1,600cr





The state government's ambitious plans to resurvey land holdings in Maharashtra will cost approximately Rs 1,600 crore, a 220% jump over the original 2008 estimate of Rs 500 crore. The cost is to be shared equally between the Centre and the state government. The state is spread over 3.07 lakh sq km, of which 2.8 lakh sq km, or 91% of the land mass, is to be re-surveyed. This includes all land holdings except city survey areas, gaothan and forest areas.

The re-survey , which is being undertaken under the National Land Record Modernisation Programme after 130 years, is awaiting an amend ment to the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966, and the Prevention of Land Holding Act, 1948, to proceed.

The survey will take 5-10 years to complete, and its estimated cost is based on a pilot project nearing completion in Mulshi taluka in Pune district. Chandrakant Dalvi, land settlement officer, Maharashtra, said the revenue department had taken up a pilot land re-survey in Mulshi taluka in Pune district which is now nearing completion and the new estimates for the land survey were based on the pilot project. "Several other states have also approached the Centre to revise the rates given the cost escalation,'' he said.

The land mass was first measured by the British in 1802 in the Madras Presidency and between 1830-1870 it was done in the Bombay Presidency. Thereafter a revision survey was carried out between 1880 and 1930.

Based on this survey,maps called Cadastral maps were created along with the record of rights from which follows the 712 extracts and the property cards.

"Since then there have been numerous sub-divisions of land on account of transactions, gift deeds, etc.

These sub-divisions have not been measured by the state. Measurement has been done only in those few cases where interested landholders have asked for a survey. Most land parcels have been created orally and have not been incorporated into the survey maps,'' said Dalvi.

This has led to large number of litigations pending in various courts as the revenue department on account of lack of conclusive proof is unable to give a clear decision.

"The only solution is to re-survey and match the ground reality with the sur vey maps and record of rights,'' said Dalvi.

The state government plans to use high resolution satellite images along with global positioning system (GPS) to carry out the re-survey. "Only in cases where it is not possible to obtain good images on account of tree cover or some such problem will we carry out a physical survey using Electronic Total Station with GPS. This is a machine mounted with a computer that can survey large areas,'' he said.

Once the survey is completed, data published, the process of objectionsuggestions completed, every land-owner will be given a map of herhis landholding. The state revenue department has already approved the survey to be initially carried out in Nagpur, Amravati, Aurangabad, Nashik, Pune and Raigad districts and is now awaiting the amendments to begin the re-survey.