When the Survey and Land Records Department was created more than a century ago, there were close to 49 lakh field measurement books (FMBs) in the State. The FMB sketch is used to verify land measurements and boundaries of the property.
Now, there are more than 2 crore landholdings in the State. Of this, about 77 lakh landholdings does not have FMBs. Upon noticing such anomalies and slip-ups which are apparently leading to civil disputes/litigations, the government has taken up re-survey of the land in the State.
The government launched the Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) project in Krishna district. The pilot project is likely to be completed by March-end. It might take another two to three years to complete resurvey of the entire state.
When contacted, Director of Survey Settlements and Land Records N. Prabhakara Reddy said the resurvey under CORS was a first-of-its-kind exercise in the State and modern technology was being used for the purpose as done in the U.S., Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. With the new technology, an accuracy of less than 2 cm could be achieved. Earlier, the extent of permissible error was 5%.
Gigantic task
As much as 3.17 crore hectares of land (except habitations and forest) would be surveyed. The objective is to fix boundaries for each landholding. Given the accuracy, the exercise will help in minimising land disputes which had become a major cause for concern and the same is reflected in the huge number of pending cases in courts and grievances submitted at the Spandana programme, he says.
The divisions and sub-divisions of landholdings in the last few decades hade not been properly recorded for various reasons. It is primarily due to negligence and lack of interest on the part of the landowner-buyer and seller. It does not cost more than ₹535 to get the field survey done by the survey after sub-division of the land parcel but the landowners did not show interest. The FMBs for such land parcels, which will be around 77 lakh, have to be created. The department was imparting training to 11,158 surveyors.
