More hands for land resurvey
The induction of 400 more surveyors recently in the Land Survey Department is expected to speed up land resurvey in the State.
A senior official in the department said here that the new appointees had completed training and would be initially engaged in surveying land promised to the tribal people in the State.
Late last year, Revenue Minister K.P. Rajendran said that about 27,000 hectares of land had to be surveyed for being handed over to the tribal people. He promised that the resurvey could be completed in three years at the State level. Money or personnel would not be a problem for completing the task held up for nearly three decades, he added.
But the resurvey programme under the Bhoomi Keralam project has not made much headway.
In Ernakulam district, the work has been completed in 68 villages. While the work in Kothamangalam, Muvattupuzha and Paravur taluks has remained static, that in Kanayannur taluk, except in the Kochi Corporation areas, and the Thripunithura municipal areas, have been completed. The work has been partially completed in Kochi taluk. Twenty-three villages have been cleared in Kunnathunad taluk.
The employees recently raised apprehensions about the new work methodology. Under the Bhoomi Keralam project, state-of-the art equipment has to be used. Boundaries have to be established for each property and its classifications meticulously made.
The employees have welcomed the use of new technology, such as satellite imaging and aerial photometry.
However, a spokesman for the field employees said that some of the measures being followed might be in violation of the statutes. The employees were fully committed to completing the work because it had proved a big burden on them for the last decade. Completing the work at the earliest would be in their interest, he added.
Various unions representing the Survey and Revenue department employees have pointed to the shortage of manpower in the past.
The spokesman said that though 400 surveyors had been inducted recently, they would be deployed in the northern districts.
An important step taken last year was to correct the anomalies in the resurvey works carried out in the Ayyampuzha village under Aluva taluk, said a senior official.
He said that resurvey data had not been officially entered into the records and, as a result, some anomalies had crept in.
Over the past 23 years, transactions had not been fully recorded and these needed to be recorded and required corrections made.
The target set for the Survey Department in Ernakulam district was to complete resurvey in a village in three months. However, progress has not been made.
But a recent order from the Survey Department in the district to restart immediately the preliminary works for resurvey has set in motion the process of beginning the works here.
Despite the land reforms, lakhs of people, especially the Adivasis, remain landless. There are also complaints that come to light during transfer of property.
K.A. MARTIN
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