Bengaluru: Chief minister Siddaramaiah Wednesday said his govt plans to recruit 36 assistant directors of land records (ADLRs) and is considering regularising services of contract surveyors.
At the 36th National Survey Day event at Vidhana Soudha, he said appointment letters for 750 surveyors will be issued soon. Calling the revenue department the govt’s “mother department”, Siddaramaiah emphasised that its efficient functioning is essential to maintaining peace among people.
“If work is done smoothly and honestly in offices of tahsildars, ACs, and DCs, people and farmers will be at peace,” Siddaramaiah said. “We allocated enough funds to the revenue department and will continue to do so. We will also provide it with adequate staff.”
He urged officials to complete pending survey work within two years and achieve Podi-mukta villages, noting that unresolved land survey issues often lead to disputes and violence. “Disputes will arise if survey work is pending in villages. Clashes and heinous crimes like murder have occurred in villages due to disputes over borders of their land. These things will not happen if the survey department completes its work,” he said. He also said the govt will consider demands of licensed surveyors to regularise their services.
Revenue minister Krishna Byre Gowda highlighted advancements in survey technology and digitisation. “To enhance survey accuracy, 49 CORS (Continuously Operating Reference Station) centres have been established,” Byre Gowda said. “Instead of traditional equipment, rover-based surveys are being conducted which produce quick, accurate, and digital work. We already have 600 rovers and the govt has approved the purchase of an additional 5,000 rovers which will be procured in phases.”
He said rover equipment has significantly reduced survey time. “Earlier, surveyors needed more than six hours to survey a parcel of land, but now, with rovers, it can be done in just eight minutes,” he said.
Byre Gowda also said that all revenue documents related to the survey department will be fully digitised within a year. The department currently receives 1.3 lakh applications every month and conducts 5,000 to 6,000 survey operations daily. “Earlier, the waiting time for a survey extended to six months, but it’s now down to a month or less,” he said.