Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Revenue card scheme leads to losses

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The State government’s plans to remove difficulties in obtaining various certificates from the Revenue Department are yet to yield results.

Efforts to introduce revenue cards late in the Nineties were abandoned midway, as alternatives were becoming available with the computerisation of land records and registration offices. However, the revenue kiosk system proposed as the alternative is yet to become a reality.

The decision to introduce revenue cards containing comprehensive data on landholdings and family details was taken in 1995. The card was to be an authentic record for various certificates to be issued by the Revenue authorities. To facilitate that, the Kerala Revenue Card Act was enacted in 1999 and rules were framed.

The District Collectors spent about Rs. 75 lakh by 2001 on issuing the cards. Nearly 1.11-crore application forms were printed and 1.07-crore applications distributed. However, only 52.88-lakh applications were received back. Cards were issued to 45,000 people in just one taluk of Ernakulam district as a pilot scheme. The data collected soon became obsolete.

Officials told the Public Accounts Committee of the Assembly in 2003 that the purpose of the revenue card system could be achieved through full-fledged computerisation of land records and the Registration Department and hence the implementation of the card scheme was kept in abeyance.

The committee observed in its report published recently that it was a classical example of launching schemes without a proper vision. No effective action had been taken to carry out the scheme effectively. For want of proper study, the scheme had to be dropped midway, resulting in loss to the exchequer. If the scheme was implemented on schedule, the amount spent would not have gone waste.

The committee wanted to know the progress in implementing the kiosk scheme.

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