Dr. Dilip Kumar Jaiswal, Minister of Revenue and Land Reforms Department, reviewed the update and management of Bhoodan land records. The Minister directed the officials to take inventory, scanning and digitization of records in mission mode. A team will be formed under the chairmanship of Additional Collectors and separate mapping of Bhoodan land will be prepared. The Minister said that all the records related to Bhoodan land should be organized and secured, so that there is no difficulty in future. Old and important records of Bhoodan land will be preserved in digital form.
The minister held a review meeting with departmental officials. In the meeting, various points including verification of available records related to Bhoodan land, status of records, conservation, scanning and digitization were discussed in detail. The Minister said that during the Bhoodan Movement, thousands of acres of land was donated and distributed among the landless, but its records are scattered in many districts and at many places the records are in bad condition. Therefore, it is necessary to consolidate all the records at one place and save them in digital form.
Organize and update records, verify and keep them safe
The Minister directed the officials to work in mission mode to organize and update all the available records related to Bhoodan land. He said that the available land records should be verified as per requirement and preserved in a safe and organized manner, so that there is no difficulty in using and verifying these records in future. Many times there is a dispute regarding Bhoodan land and the matter gets complicated due to non-availability of records.
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In the meeting, the status of various registers and records related to Bhoodan land including donation letter, confirmation register was also reviewed. The Minister said that the donation papers were filled at the time of land donation and after that the land was confirmed in the confirmation register. In many districts, there are donation letters, but the confirmation register is not available. If there is a confirmation register somewhere then there is no donation letter. Therefore, there is a need to prepare consolidated records by combining all the registers together.
Preparation of mapping of Bhoodan land
The Minister directed that a separate Bhoodan land mapping should be prepared by consolidating the available data related to all confirmed lands of Bhoodan. This will help in preparing clear, consolidated and systematic records of Bhoodan land. The Minister said that by preparing a separate mapping of Bhoodan land, it will be known how much Bhoodan land is there in which district, how much of it has been distributed and how much land is still disputed or encroached upon. After mapping, it will be easy to protect Bhoodan land from encroachment and it will also be easy to give land to the landless. The minister said that Bhoodan land is for the poor and it should reach the poor only.
Instructions to complete work on time
Secretary Jai Singh directed that a detailed inventory of records related to Bhoodan land should be prepared by forming a team under the chairmanship of Additional Collector in all the districts. After the inventory is ready, scanning and digitization of the available records will be done. This will ensure safe preservation of old and important records in digital form. The Secretary said that first of all it should be found out in every district how many records related to Bhoodan are available, in what condition they are and where they are kept. Many records are in zonal offices and many are lying in the district archives. Many records have become tattered and old. Therefore it is necessary to make their inventory. The Secretary said that after the inventory is made, the work of scanning and digitization will be started.
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Team will be formed in every district
Old records will be scanned and kept safe in digital form, so that even if they get damaged in future, their digital records will remain safe. Due to digitization, Bhoodan land records can also be viewed online and people will not have to visit offices for the records. This work has to be done in mission mode and for this a team will be formed in every district under the chairmanship of Additional Collector. The team will include District Bhoodan Officer, Circle Officer and other personnel. The Minister directed to give the responsibility of regular monitoring of this entire work at the district level to the District Magistrates.