Land-related issues often cause people a lot of trouble. For example, even if someone owns a homestead plot full of coconut trees, the revenue records may still show it as “paddy land.” Correcting such errors is not easy, and many realise these mistakes only when they start building a house or using the land. To fix it, people often have to visit the village office multiple times. For those living outside the state due to work, this becomes almost impossible. This is when they turn to middlemen, which naturally leads to bribes and corruption.

If the procedures to correct errors in revenue records were simplified, applicants would not have to go through such hardships. The reality is that many people are unaware of the complicated steps involved. The Revenue Department needs to regularly conduct awareness campaigns to educate the public. Earlier this year, the government clarified rules about building houses on land recorded as “paddy land” in revenue records. Normally, construction is not allowed on land included in the data bank. However, if someone has been in possession of such land since before 2008 and owns no other dry land, they can be allowed to reclaim up to 10 cents in panchayats and 5 cents in municipalities to build a house. The district collector has the authority to grant this permission, and no limit has been set on the size of the building.

Still, in some places, officials misinterpret the rules and cause trouble for applicants. Most people apply for free land conversion to build a house or a small shop. Across the state, thousands are waiting for such applications to be processed. As of August 24 this year, 6,39,235 land conversion applications had been received. Of these, 3,70,760 were resolved, while 2,68,466 remain pending. The main reason for the delay in deciding these applications has been the requirement for unnecessary data collection. Revenue Minister K. Rajan’s recent announcement that these requirements will be removed through an amendment is commendable. Although free conversion is allowed for up to 25 cents of land, the procedures were complicated. This complexity is what caused the applications to pile up.

Free land conversion is approved by the RDO/Deputy Collector based on the report submitted by the village officer. The unnecessary data collection included in the proforma for preparing the report will be removed with the new amendment. Instead, it will be enough to prepare the report using information from the Thandaper register and revenue records. Until now, village officers had to spend a lot of time preparing the proforma. Applications are submitted online, but apart from the details added by the village officer, another form related to the land also had to be filled in. At least 12 pieces of information had to be recorded. With these unnecessary data collection steps now being removed, decisions on land conversion applications are expected to be taken much faster.