Land laws expert and Nalsar University adjunct professor M. Sunil Kumar on Sunday said the State government has decided to bring in a comprehensive Record of Rights (RoR) Act to provide a transparent mechanism for land transactions.
The proposed Bill, kept in public domain to elicit the opinions of all stakeholders, was not only a replacement of the RoR Act 2020 passed by the previous government but also an upgrade containing the salient features of all the four RoR Acts enacted since 1936.
The first Act was enacted during the Nizam era in 1936, followed by similar acts in the Hyderabad State in 1948 and in the united Andhra Pradesh in 1971. The latest legislation was enacted in 2020.
He said they had studied the RoR acts in force in 18 states and incorporated their best practices in the draft. He was speaking at a meeting organised by Deputy Collectors’ Association to discuss the new RoR Act here.
He said the proposed Bill provided for appeal-and-revision provisions to ensure that stakeholders had the opportunity to represent their cases.
The enactment of the proposed Bill would be followed by issue of ‘Bhoodhar’ cards to farmers. A temporary clause for regularisation of ‘Sada Bainamas’ (transactions on plain paper) had also been included in the Bill. There were over 9.2 lakh applications pertaining to Sada Bainamas, pending redressal.
The Bill has a provision to enumerate the details of non-agricultural land in villages, for which there has been no record till date. The process would entail a one-time preparation of RoR for non-agricultural land in collaboration with the Centre and the Survey of India. “We have the asset, but it is not becoming wealth because of some factors. Efforts are on the rectify these,” Mr. Sunil Kumar said.
Reforming the revenue system
Deputy Collectors Association president V. Lachi Reddy said that revenue administration had been diluted at all level over the past few years. The incumbent government, therefore, initiated steps to reform the system from the grassroots.
He recalled how the Dharani portal had resulted in several problems to land owners and how not a single gunta of land was added to the existing records. He exhorted the deputy collectors to contribute their bit to ensure the success of the government’s exercise.
