THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In the background of digital resurvey, to make the ownership of land correct, the draft of Settlement Act is being prepared in six months. The draft prepared by Land Revenue Commissionerate has been handed over to Revenue department.

The law that is being formulated will have stipulations to make it clear that the land mentioned in the title deed is extra land or occupied land. After detailed study, the advice of the experts in land will be taken. After that it will be send to the law department. Only after that would the draft be completed.

Once the digital survey is complete the clear picture of the land in the sate will be revealed. The merit of this is that every land will have an exact owner.

If a person had more land in his possession than what is mentioned in the title deed then he was allowed to pay land tax for that and could add the land in his name. The resurvey in 1966 was started to have a clarity about the land holdings like these. The survey could not be completed due to the lack of technology and the drawbacks of the traditional methods.

In 1994, the revenue department had issued an order allowing people, with more land than what is given in the title deed, to include it in their ownership. In 2019 this was discontinued. If the land in his possession is 5% less than the area of land given in the title deed it would be examined by the Tahasildar and if the land area is more than 5% then the district Collector will examine it and the land will be allowed to be included in the owner’s name. However, this was not able to recognize the extra land or the occupied land. The Settlement Act was brought to solve this issue.