Private landowners are now empowered to create land sketch of their property under Svavalambi scheme to simplify and speed up the process.
This enables landowners to sell their property, get tatkal podi for subdivision of private land, pre-conversion sketch to help convert agricultural land for non-agricultural purpose and partition land among the persons having legal rights.
Revenue Minister R. Ashok said that at present owners wait from six months to a year to get their work done, whereas the new system enabled owners to get approval for land sketches within 10 days from the authorities.
Every year, the department received 10 lakh applications for conversion of land and more than six lakh applications were pending approval.
The Minister said that landowners in rural areas could seek the help of authorised surveyors, architects, civil engineers or anyone else to create a land sketch. Farmers could also visit Nada Kacheri offices for it.
Describing how landowners could go about the process, the Minister said that the first step was to visit rdservices.karnataka.gov.in. Landowners had to provide Aadhaar card and RTC. Only when the information provided matched, they would be allowed to follow the next steps on making self-sketch.
“It is a simplified and secure process. The sketch created by the private landowner has legal validity and once it gets approved by the Survey Department, the owner can use 11 E sketch for registration in sub-registrar office, conversion of land use, podi sketch to get individual RTC. Existing fee structure is applicable for services available under Svavalambhi. scheme,” the Minister added.
Helpline to be launched
Senior citizens, physically challenged, widows, unmarried or divorced women whose annual family income is lower than ₹32,000 could soon apply for social security pension benefit by dialling a toll-free telephone helpline.
Mr. Ashok said the Chief Minister would launch the helpline shortly. “Applicants can provide their Aadhaar number while registering their request on a toll-free number. Based on the request, the village accountant will visit the applicants on their doorsteps and verify the information provided and collect the related documents. Thereafter, the deputy tahsildar will approve eligible applications within 72 hours,” said the Minister.
Mr. Ashok added that in Bengaluru, the State Government was planning to utilise the services of gig economy workers for verification of documents of the applicants. The Minister added that due to continuous monitoring of disbursal of social security pension benefits, the department had identified 3.58 lakh “bogus beneficiaries” that had helped save ₹430 crore for the exchequer.
Self-declaration
The State Government had also proposed to amend Karnataka Land Revenue Act, 1964, to permit conversion of agriculture land for non-agriculture use based on self-declaration. As per the proposal, an owner of agricultural land would be able to put his land to non-agricultural use by giving a self-declaration as per the approved master plan of the area.
In case the master plan has not not yet been published for an area, the authorities concerned will give approval as per the provision of Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act. However, if any diversion is obtained using a false and wrong self-declaration, such declarations will be rejected by the Deputy Commissioners, and the applicant will face legal action and the amount paid will be forfeited.
