Mission Basundhara (Phase-I) concludes in Assam

 Impact of population boom on government works comes to fore: CM

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Mission Basundhara (Phase-I) concluded today, disposing of 8.13 lakh land-related applications in the state.

Addressing the concluding ceremony of the Mission today, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, "The task we have accomplished will shine bright in the history of public services. During the exercise, how the population explosion puts pressure on government works has come to the fore. The disposal and success rates of applications are very high in upper Assam and the North Bank. The application disposal rate is not satisfactory in central and lower Assam. Population explosion has led to a scarcity of lands in lower Assam, where land-related conflicts among siblings and others are very complicated. Upper Assam has no such problems. We need to brainstorm on the impact of population boom on land, health, education and the government."

Sarma said, "We received 8,13,981 applications. We disposed of 5,82,668 of the applications positively and rejected the rest on different grounds. Most of the rejected applications have legal complications. However, I have asked the officials to relook the rejected applications. Lack of clear-cut instructions from the government and executive instructions that are out of sync with the laws may lead to the rejection of applications."

Citing an example, the Chief Minister said, "The last application we disposed of today is of a widow. After the demise of her husband, the widow had been running from pillar to post for the past 18 years to get the lands mutated in her name. A circle officer can do this work in a day, but they did not. They keep such works pending, giving enough space for brokers. I have noticed that a section of the rich can get any category of lands mutated in their names at ease. They do not have dearth of people serving them. The poor, on the hand, get none to help them."

On the second phase of Mission Basundhara, the Chief Minister said, "This phase is to covert 1,040 NC (Non-cadastral) villages to revenue villages, and providing land pattas to the people residing there. We will declare such villages as model villages to link them with the Prime Minister's Svamitva Scheme. Reconstruction of the destroyed land records of 714 villages in Dibrugarh, Tinsukia and Kamrup is another important task in this phase. We will digitalize the land documents of all the villages in the state to provide land passbooks to the landowners. The government will also introduce a 'land title guarantee bill' to make land documents only a click away from banks and others."

On rayatis (people living on government land without paying tax), the Chief Minister said, "These are poor indigenous people living on government lands for years. They don't pay land tax as the lands they live on are not revenue lands. Brokers take advantage with the promise of solving their problems. The brokers also buy lands from rayatis at throwaway prices. In principle, the government has decided to provide land rights to the rayatis without charging any premium."

The Chief Minister said that the Assam Land and Revenue Regulations, 1886, needed a lot of amendments to solve the land-related problems of people.

As a mark of appreciation, the CM said, "For dedication and hard work from circle officers to fourth-grade employees involved in this mission, we will pay an amount equivalent to their one-month basic salary."

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