The new Bill provides less human interface when a land transaction takes place as it would automatically be updated in land records and mutation is done immediately, removing the scope for staff to do it manually which breeds corruption.

Hyderabad: As corruption in Revenue Department touches the raw nerve of the farmers, the Chief Minister K. Chandra Sekhar Rao has been poring over various proposals to make land transactions completely transparent and ensure that there would be zero scope for corruption for any official work to be done. He has been seized of the new Revenue Bill for the last one and half years, with an intention primarily to sanitise the Revenue Department which has been under public glare for its blatant venality.

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has called a Cabinet meeting on Monday, the day when the monsoon session of the State Legislature will meet, to clear the Bill for introducing it in the Assembly. Telangana will usher in a new unified and comprehensive Revenue Act, replacing nearly 139 redundant and irrelevant revenue and land legislations and rules framed under them. This has even led to an aggrieved farmer setting a Tahsildar near Hyderabad on fire in the not-too-distant past and the ACB sleuths apprehending another Tahsildar while accepting Rs 1.3 crore as bribe just a fortnight ago.

The new Bill, which will have features of the Acts that are in force in other States too, is understood to have considered the recommendations of the legal luminaries as well in imparting more teeth to the Bill. The new Bill provides less human interface when a land transaction takes place as it would automatically be updated in land records and mutation is done immediately, removing the scope for staff to do it manually which breeds corruption.

The Bill also ensures that the transaction is done in a transparent manner and in a foolproof way as every inch of land would be accounted for. Chief Secretary (CS) Somesh Kumar had worked over time in preparing the Bill even when he was Special CS, taking care of the Revenue Department, as it is very close to the CM’s heart and also because it is one of the promises made by the CM at the time of 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The Bill, once it becomes Act, would facilitate easy resolution of land disputes as all parcels of lands would be documented and their ownership recorded. The Chief Minister also had stated in the past that he would ensure that the new Act would ensure conferring title deed to the person who purchases land. At present only sale transactions are registered but not the title and these lacunae has given rise to a number of litigations.

During the monsoon session, the government is expected to introduce, besides new Revenue Bill, Reservation Amendment Bill for inclusion of 17 nomadic castes in BC category and table the food processing policy.  The Opposition Congress members are sharpening their knives for an attack on the TRS for demolition of religious structures on the old Secretariat premises and other issues.