The Revenue department will hold special adalats from January 15 onwards to dispose of pending applications related to conversion of land.
The adalats will be held at RDO offices across the State, Revenue Minister K. Rajan said here on Wednesday. The first adalat will be held at Mananthavady on January 15. The final one will be held at the RDO Office, Fort Kochi, which has reported the biggest backlog of applications, on February 17.
Over the past several months, thousands of applications have piled up at revenue offices. Through a law amendment, the State Assembly had sought to authorise Deputy Collectors, alongside RDOs, to exercise all or any of the powers of the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act, 2008. However, the Bill is yet to receive the Governor’s assent, according to the Revenue department.
It is in this context that the department decided to hold adalats to dispose of the applications. According to the government, the law amendment would have enabled the department to speed up the settlement of the pending applications in a decentralised manner across 69 centres under 27 RDOs/Subcollectors and 42 Deputy Collectors.
All applications pending till December 2023 will be taken up at the adalats. In all, 1,18,253 applications are pending.
