Bihar govt suspends land survey for 3 months

Bihar Revenue and Land Reforms Minister Dilip Kumar Jaiswal

The Bihar government on Saturday (September 21, 2024) suspended land surveying in the state for three months due to problems faced by people in obtaining documents. The drive is being conducted after more than 100 years and has been mired in complaints of corruption at the district office level.

“We have found that people are having trouble collecting land documents, so the department has decided to give them three months more time to get the required documents. A formal letter about the decision will be sent after two days and then the survey will resume,” said Dilip Kumar Jaiswal, minister in the ministry of revenue and land reforms.

“After three months, we will discuss the issue with the stakeholders. I have called a meeting with the circle officials and warned them to maintain transparency or be ready for action,” he said.

With the state assembly elections due next year, the government of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar started the land survey on August 20. The deadline for the survey was July 2025. The aim of the survey is to digitise the land records of 45,000 villages.

A large number of land disputes pending in various fora have burdened the state machinery, including the civil courts. The government has appointed nearly 10,000 officials as special assistant settlement officers and other officials, including land surveyors.

But officials have had trouble decoding old land documents written in Kaithi script. Sources said few officials in the state can read the script.

“We are organising a training camp and have brought experts from Varanasi. Currently, 100 officers are being trained to read Kaithi script. We will display the Hindi alphabets of Kaithi so that people can check whether the officers are reading correctly. We will send the Hindi alphabets of Kaithi to every panchayat so that people can read and understand,” Mr Jaiswal said.

At a high-level meeting on Saturday, the Prime Minister stressed that land disputes should be resolved in a timely manner so that related crime is brought under control.

“The land survey will be done because once it is completed, 60% of the cases filed in police stations will be solved,” Mr Jaiswal said. “Land records have been digitised in West Bengal, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh, we want to do that too. The land mafia is spreading rumours that the survey will be suspended, that will not happen. Around 52,000 hectares of government land is in the illegal possession of the land mafia and once the survey is completed, the government will get its land back,” the minister said.