Hand over maps to Jharkhand; centre prods Nitish
Ranchi
Goaded by the Centre the Bihar government has finally woken up to address the concern of Jharkhand over land records and maps stashed at Bihar’s Land Revenue Department.
Though, Humkum Singh Meena Director land Record of Bihar Government sought time to go into the details of the dispute as he took over the charge of the department recently but top sources in the land Revenue confided matter has been placed before the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
“We have received communication from the Centre and the Jharkhand government. The file has been placed before the Chief Minister and a meeting is likely to be held after he completes his Seva Yatra,” the official said.
The same was confirmed by Land Revenue Minister of the Bihar government Ramai Ram in a hushed overture. “It will soon be resolved. We are in touch with our Jharkhand counterpart,” Ram told the pioneer over telephone but refused to share details of the status of the case.
Eleven years after its formation Jharkhand has still not been able to keep its land records straight owing to the apathy of Big Brother Bihar that did not handover original maps to Jharkhand. Around 82000 land maps are lying unattended at the Gulzarbag Printing Press, Patna.
Twice in the last one year Chief Minister Arjun Munda shot missives to his Bihar counterpart and called attention of the Centre over unsupportive response of the Bihar government all these years. Munda had specifically raised the matter with the Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh during his Jharkhand visit. Centre is reported to have instructed the Bihar government to handover the maps to Jharkhand have asked to handover maps to Jharkhand. The absence of proper land records have been proving boon for racketeers to indulge in massive land scams like in Deoghar and Ranchi.
“We are soon going to send a delegation of officials to resolve the matter with our Bihar counterpart. I personally visited Bihar with the request and have dropped several missives. Now we have approached the Centre to intervene in this matter,” Jharkhand Land and Revenue Minister Mathura Mahto said.
Official sources in the state Land Revenue Department said that due to non-transfer of maps proposed drive for digitalised land record e-khatiyan has suffered badly. The problem is acute in districts sharing boarder of Bihar. “We are running beyond the deadline. We are lacking in modernization of land records under National Land Record Modernisation Programme,” the official said. In 2005-06 fiscal year Centre had granted Rs five crore to Jharkhand under this head. So far only two districts — Jamshedpur and Lohardaga have computerized land record while Centre granted more funds for Koderma, Pakur, Dumka and Dhanbad. But in the absence of land maps the state department has been able to digitalize barely 8,000 land maps.