THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, 31 May 2008 — The Kerala government has fixed the price of land in the state and posted them on the official website to prevent shady deals in land transactions.
Kerala is the first Indian state to make available prices of residential, commercial and agricultural plots, its nature and survey numbers just a click away. The Center for Digital Imaging Technology (C-DIT) started posting the valuations and other details of plots on the official website www.keralaregistration.gov.in last week.
“The value temporarily fixed for plots even in remote villages will be available online. The minimum value for land under all survey numbers would be fixed by July after looking into all complaints,” Registration and Fisheries Minister S. Sharma said.
The notification would help bring about transparency and eliminate corruption in land deals. The government would also issue an ordinance to invalidate contracts signed prior to the registration.
“A lot of middlemen and land sharks grab land through contracts and earn huge profit without actually buying it. They simply sell it to a third person and register the land in his name,” the minister said. “Many unscrupulous people are acting as middlemen and doing this,” he said.
Revenue divisional officers would examine and decide on complaints concurrently about the provisional land value. An amendment to the Registration Act making it mandatory to register sale agreements would be made during the next session of the assembly. “This will put an end to black money and shady deals. The Act would also be amended to prevent transfer of land using bogus documents and alienation of government lands,” the minister said.
The government would be empowered to cancel any registration made using false or forged documents. No-objection certificate from the designated authorities would be required for transfer of government land.
“It was the promise of the Left Democratic Front that is being fulfilled. The draft was published on May 5 in 30,000 volumes. I hope people would welcome the change,” he said. The government has already made photos and thumb impressions of the buyer and seller mandatory in registered documents.
“We have also installed digital image printers in all 308 offices of the department and complaints of delays and workloads both by the citizens and employees are a thing of the past. With massive computerization, every detail would be available online and people don’t have to trust the officials blindly,” Sharma said.
The minister said the exorbitant stamp duty and registration charges would also be reduced when the new prices for land are fixed.
The Registration Department earned record revenue during the last financial year when it received Rs18.73bn as against Rs13.83bn the previous year as stamp duty and registration fee.
The department would organize special hearings at district headquarters every month to redress complaints by the public. Citizens’ charters would be published at all offices of the department in June.
Speaking about the achievements of the Fisheries Department, the minister said the government had enacted three legislations for the benefit of the fishing community.
The most important was the one concerning the setting up of the Debt Relief Commission — the first time in India. The commission is expected to provide much relief to the debt-stressed fishing community, one of the extremely marginalized sections in the state.
The government is implementing some 40 projects with an outlay of Rs.650m that will benefit at least 40,000 families. The projects include 300 vehicles for distributing fresh fish, a “revolving fund” for fisherwomen, 1,000 small-scale processing units, fish supermarkets and kiosks, seafood kitchen, mussel farming units, free safety kits and farming of ornamental fishes.
“We are also planning to make available interest-free loans to some 30,000 fisherwomen through commercial banks and cooperative societies. We hope this would end exploitation of the community by moneylenders,” the minister said.
The government also intends to introduce an insurance scheme. Seventy-five percent of the cost will be covered under the scheme and 50 percent of the premium will be borne by the government.
“We are also in the process of finalizing a master plan at an estimated cost of Rs.30bn for the overall improvement of infrastructure and logistics. The tsunami rehabilitation schemes are also being implemented at a fast pace,” he said.
A new company, Aquaventures International Limited has been incorporated for setting up an Aqua Technology Park near the Cochin International Airport. The company will also set up satellite farms at Neyyar in Thiruvananthapuram, Pannivelachira in Pathanamthitta, Pallam in Kottayam, Ullanam in Malappuram and Pazhassi in Kannur.
Besides, several fishing harbors and fish landing centers are under implementation at the various centers in the state, the minister said.
