Hyderabad: Just 30 days remain for the Centre’s grant to lapse. But the government’s comprehensive land survey is yet to get off the grounds.
The survey was planned to find out the availability of government, private, agriculture and other categories of land in the state. The Centre had released Rs 150 crore for the survey slated to cost a total of Rs 600 crore.
With the state government failing to release its matching grant, the Central funds will lapse on March 31, when the financial year ends.
The Telanana state government had scheduled the survey in February. The last such survey was conducted under Nizam’s rule more than 80 years ago.
The government has little information on the status of land and encroachers have had a field day.
To get a grip on the problem, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had ordered a comprehensive land survey to update the revenue and land records.
‘The survey could not be started due to technical reasons. While there is severe shortage of surveyors, officials have recently pointed out that as a new state, Telangana will have to pass legislation to update revenue records,” said Deputy Chief Minister Mohd Mahmood Ali.
“We still have a month’s time to utilise the Centre’s funds. We have taken up the issue with the Chief Min-ister, who has assured that the state’s share will be released,” said Dr Ali, who holds the revenue portfolio.
Officials said Rs 150 crore sanctioned by the Centre was not sufficient to take up the survey in 10 districts simultaneously. For this reason the Bhoo Bharathi project, launched by the UPA government on a pilot basis in Nizamabad, still remains incomplete.
