`66 % court cases related to land disputes’

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : The Central Information Commission (CIC) on July 15, 2017, organised a seminar on “Land Records and Right to Information (RTI) Act 2005”, here. Addressing the seminar, Chief Information Commissioner Radha Krishna Mathur said that almost half of the RTI queries received by the State Information Commissions relate to Land Records.

He said Land Resources primarily being a state subject, it is incumbent upon the state governments to put out information on Land Records in the public domain.  Mathur said that majority of crimes in the society are related to land disputes. He said that the digitization of Land Records will bring about clarity in land holdings and help reduce criminal cases, cut pendency of court cases and also result in huge savings to the public exchequer, according to a PIB release.

Speaking on the occasion, Dinesh Singh, Secretary, Department of Land Resources (DLR), said Land Records is fundamental to every citizen and affects every individual. He said that an integrated Land Information Management System is under implementation which will serve as a single window database for the various stakeholders such as the land owner(s) and civic agencies and linking this database with the Aadhar number will eventually eliminate benami transactions.

Prof M Sridhar Acharyulu, Information Commissioner, CIC, said almost 66% court cases in the country are related to land disputes costing a whopping Rs 58,000 crore in litigation, both civil and criminal. He said Land Records digitization can help accelerate India’s GDP by as much as 1.3%, according to PIB release.