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SURVEY AND SETTLEMENT 2016-2017

   This department which has a pride of rich tradition for more than 150 years, has now been modernised, with the able guidance of the Honourable Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, and thereby started using modern equipments like Global Positioning System (GPS) and Electronic Total Station (ETS) in the place of Chains, CrossStaffs and Theodolites for survey work; computerised land records in the place of manuscript land records and web-enabled online patta transfer services in the place of age old manual services in Taluk Offices.

   'Best Practices Award' for the year 2016 along with a cash reward of Rs.2.00 Lakh was awarded to this department by the Honourable Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu in the 70th Independence day celebrations held on 15.8.2016. This award has been presented to this department for having computerized all land records and for implementing Online Patta Transfer System to make available updated land records online for the public and for facilitating viewing and downloading of ‘A’ Register and Chitta anytime from anywhere. This award has acknowledged the services rendered by this department.

6.2 Organisational set up

   The Directorate of Survey and Settlement, located at Survey House, Chepauk, Chennai, has two Wings viz., Survey and Settlement. All Survey and Settlement schemes and other related works are monitored from here. The Central Survey Office that controls and guides the mapping activities is also located at this Directorate. District Survey Offices, each headed by an Assistant Director of Survey and Land Records, located in every district Headquarter, are responsible for ground-level implementation of Survey Schemes. Survey section available in every Taluk office is responsible for maintenance of land records with reference to subsequent changes in land ownerships and attributes like classification.

6.3 State Schemes

6.3.1 Town Survey

   When the villages develop, they are upgraded as Town Panchayats and when they develop further, they are upgraded as Municipalities and Corporations. In villages and Town Panchayats, Cadastral survey is carried out using traditional Survey methods like Diagonal and Offset method and Land Records are maintained in the form of FMB, ‘A’ Register & Chitta, and Adangal.

   Whereas in Municipal and Corporation areas, survey is carried out based on Wards, Blocks and Town Survey Numbers, and Land Records are maintained in the form of Ward maps/ Block maps, Town Survey Land Register (TSLR) and Chitta. Hence, whenever Town Panchayats are upgraded by the Government as Municipalities and Corporations, fresh survey has to be conducted by adopting Town Survey Method.

CORPORATIONS

MUNICIPALITIES

6.3.2 Natham and Hill Survey

   Natham in villages are the land parcels reserved for habitation which are classified as Natham Poramboke in Revenue Records. For the people residing in Natham Poramboke there were no subdivisions in Revenue Records based on their enjoyment. The Natham Survey and Settlement work, which was conducted to issue Patta to the people residing in Natham lands, has been completed in all the Taluks of the State except the Settlement work presently in progress in Ambattur Taluk of Thiruvallur District, Pandalur and Kundah Taluks of the Nilgiris District.

   The Survey technique used for 'Hill Survey' are different from the Survey techniques used for plains. Hill Survey has been completed in all the 67 hill villages spread over in 6 districts and Revenue Follow-up work has been completed in 60 villages. Work is in progress in 7 hill villages.

6.3.3 Modern Resurvey

   Introduction of Modern equipments in Resurvey will ensure millimetre accuracy and also creation of digital database of Lands and their attributes. This will help the public to know about their land details and also this will be helpful in proper planning of land usage. Also, fraudulent land transactions can be curbed through usage of digital database and Government lands can be protected through Web-based monitoring.

Survey using modern equipments is in progress in the following Corporations and their extended areas

Survey using modern equipments is in progress in the following Municipalities

   Based on the Announcement made in the Legislative Assembly, Resurvey work using GPS & ETS has been commenced in the following three pilot Taluks.

   On successful completion of this pilot study, modern resurvey will be extended to the other districts of the State.

6.4 Computerisation of Land Records

6.4.1 Types of land records available in Rural and Urban areas

In Rural areas

  (i)‘A’ Register - contains Survey Number-wise details of land records for every village. It has details like District, Taluk, Village, Survey No., Sub-division No., Land Type, Irrigation Source, Soil Type, Extent, Assessment, Owner's Name, etc.

 (ii) Chitta - contains Pattadhar-wise details of land records for every village. It has extents of lands specific to Pattadhar and Land Revenue Assessment details for Dry and Wet &lands.

 (iii) FMB - contains sketches of individual land parcels/ sub-divisions (Field Measurement Sketches).

 (iv) Adangal - contains cultivation details.

 (v) Village Maps - are maps containing all survey nos. of villages. They are modified only when the village boundaries are altered.

 (vi) Traverse - records and related other survey records.

In Urban areas

 (i) TSLR - Town Survey Land Register – contains Town Survey Number–wise particulars correlated with old Survey Nos, Classification, Extent, Door no. and street names, names of the owners and utility of lands, etc.

 (ii) Block Map – contains Combined Sketches of Town Survey numbers with street names.

6.4.2 Strategies adopted for computerisation

   Given the different varieties of land records, different types of software were required for computerising them. The format (columns) of rural land records and the urban land records were different; hence, common software could not be used for computerising them. Therefore, this department has developed the following softwares through National Informatics Centre.

 (i) Tamil NILAM (Tamil Nadu Info-system on Land Administration and Management), for computerising rural land records.

 (ii) COLLABLAND, for digitising FMB.

 (iii) Web-based Tamil NILAM (Rural), for online management of RURAL land records.

 (iv) Web-based Tamil NILAM (Urban), for online management of URBAN land records.

6.4.3 Computerization of Urban Land Records

   Since the format of Urban Land Records was different from that of Rural Land Records, data entry of Urban Land Records was not pursued when the data entry of Rural Land Records was taken up initially. Data Entry of Urban Land Records was carried out subsequently. Presently, the data entry and verification of all urban land records numbering around 38.13 lakh has been completed.

   Web-based Software for Urban Land Records has been developed through NIC and it has been installed in the Server at the State Data Centre, Chennai. Trial-run of the software has already been commenced in 6 Taluks of Chennai district and the remaining 4 Taluks will be brought online very shortly. The web-based Online Patta Transfer System will be implemented in the other urban areas viz. all Municipalities and Corporations before 31.12.2016.

6.4.4 Computerization of Natham Land Records

   Data Entry of Natham Land Records was carried out in all District Survey Offices. All the 1.37 crore Natham Land Records have been computerized. Verification of computerised data is in progress. Action is being pursued for integrating computerised Natham Land Records with the Web-based Tamil Nilam software, for issuing Natham Pattas online.

6.4.5 Digitization of Field Measurement Sketches

   Digitisation of Field Measurement Sketches is being pursued using COLLABLAND Software developed by the National Informatics Centre. So far 39.40 lakh sketches have been digitized out of the available 54.31 lakh sketches. The Balance records will be digitized by 31.12.2016. Also, action is being pursued for providing computer generated sketches along with online Patta.

6.4.6 Digitisation of Village Maps

   All Village Maps have been scanned and preserved in digital format. In order to embed Geographical Information (GIS) on the maps, Vectorization of village maps has been commenced at the Central Survey Office, Chennai. Around 3000 Village maps have been vectorized so far. The balance work will be completed in one year time.

6.4.7 Web-based Online Patta Transfer System

   Software Requirements Specification (SRS) document for developing Web-based software for online management of land records was approved by the State Level Monitoring Committee of NLRMP (National Land Records Modernization Programme) and subsequently, with consistent monitoring and feedbacks by the team of officials of this Department, Web-based Software was developed through NIC. Servers were commissioned at the State Data Centre in Perungudi near Chennai for hosting the Land Records.

   After Perambalur, which was piloted from 9.11.2014, Srirangam Taluk was brought online on 1.7.2015. Subsequently, in the year 2015 itself 126 more Taluks were brought online. As of now, 267 Taluks out of 285 Taluks have been brought online. The rest of the taluks will also be brought online very shortly.

(a) Benefits to Public

  People can apply online for Patta transfer through a Common Service Centre (CSC) situated nearer to them.

 Computer-generated acknowledgement is provided immediately to the applicants and also, applications are processed by following procedures.

 They can ascertain the action taken on their applications and the current status through internet.

 SMS will be sent to the applicants on approval of Patta/ rejection of applications by Tahsildar/ Deputy Tahsildar.

 Digitally signed Patta can be downloaded from the internet.

 Since the need for going to Taluk offices will be avoided.

 It will also ensure prompt delivery of land related services to the public through electronic mode.

  From the date of inception till 16.8.2016, 8,67,488 Online Patta Transfer applications have been received, out of which, 6,34,675 have been disposed.

(b) Benefits to Officials

   Since the workflow has been computerized, work load of the officials is highly reduced and they can easily perform their routine duties.

 Officials can work in an impressive IT environment.

 Higher officials can closely monitor the status of work through online.

 They can analyze the pending applications any time and issue instructions wherever necessary.

6.4.8 Integration of Land Records with database of Registration

   Already, transaction of land properties are permitted by the Registration authorities only after confirming the land ownership by referring to the computerised land records that have been made available on the web.

   Action is being pursued to facilitate online viewing of updated land records by the officials of Registration department and also to facilitate automatic transfer of Registration particulars for usage of Revenue department's officials.

   This software module will be tested shortly and it will be implemented in all Taluks before 31.12.2016.

6.5 National Land Records Modernization Programme

   'National Land Records Modernization Programme (NLRMP)’ is implemented by merging 'Computerization of Land Records (CLR) Programme' and 'Strengthening of Revenue Administration and Updating of Land Records (SRA&ULR) Programme'. At present, NLRMP has been renamed as 'Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme (DILRMP)'.

   he State Government, by contributing its financial share under the integrated programme 'DILRMP', aims to provide service to the public with the objectives of modernizing management of land records, minimizing scope of disputes on land properties, enhancing transparency in the maintenance land records and facilitating guaranteed conclusive titles.

   The following Schemes are pursued by the Government through this department under DILRMP.

6.5.1 Land Records Management Centres (LRMCs)

   Land Records Management Centres/ Modern Record Rooms are being created in every Taluk with necessary infrastructure for using them as Common Service Centres. All the services of Revenue Department will be provided to the public through a single window in LRMCs.

Details of funds released by the Government for the creation of LRMCs

Current status

 1. LRMCs have been created in 65 Taluks in various districts and started functioning.

 2. Necessary infrastructure will be created in all LRMCs for preserving old precious Records.

 3. Also, old records will be scanned and preserved in digital format and they will be indexed for easy retrieval

6.5.2 Supply of computers to newly created Taluks/ Revenue Divisions

   To enable public to easily obtain land records, Taluk Data Centres at all the Taluk Headquarters in the State and Divisional Data Centres at all the Revenue Divisional Headquarters have already been created and computers and accessories have been provided. Computers and accessories have been supplied to 34 Taluks out of 65 newly created Taluk Offices and 8 Revenue Divisions out of 9 Revenue Divisional Offices (RDO) and the remaining 31 Taluk offices and 1 RDO office will be provided with computers and accessories very shortly.

6.5.3 NLRMP Cell

   Under NLRMP, the funds have been sanctioned for creation of 'NLRMP Training Cell' at the Survey Training Institute, Orathanadu. Accordingly, a Training Cell has been created to impart training in Modern Survey and digital mapping. For this purpose, Electronic Total Stations, LaserJet printer, Global Positioning System, AutoCad Software, Furniture, Stationery, Library Books, Training Materials and 10 KVA Generator have been provided to the Training Cell.

   Apart from the Survey Training Institute at Orathanadu, steps have been taken to create a new Survey Training Centre in Chennai to impart advanced Training in Modern Surveying and Mapping with modern facilities at an estimated cost of Rs.2.45 crore.

6.6 Achievements of the Survey Department

 a. Office cum Residential Quarters to Firka Surveyors Based on the Announcement made by the Honourable Chief Minister in the Legislative Assembly under rule 110, in the year 2013-14, Office cum Residential Quarters for Firka Surveyors have been constructed in 100 Firkas. This scheme will enable the public to easily approach the Firka Surveyors in the Firkas in which they are residing. Hence, this will be of immense benefit to the general public as well as to the Firka Surveyors as they can conveniently perform their work related to field inspections within their Firka.

 b. With a view of bringing the Digitized Field Measurement Sketches into usage and to facilitate online management of land records, Laptops have been provided to 1140 Firka Surveyors.

 c. To facilitate easy communication related to Patta transfer work, 1600 SIM Cards have been provided to Firka Surveyors, Inspectors, Deputy Inspectors and Sub-Inspectors of Survey, for insertion in their Mobile Phones, under BSNL’s Closed User Group (CUG) facility.

 d. A Video Conferencing system has been commissioned at the Directorate of Survey and Settlement for reviewing the progress of online Patta transfer. Through this system, video conferencing is convened twice a month with all the Assistant Directors and district level survey staff to ascertain their requirements and also to review their work.

 e. In this department, so far 1,232 posts of Field Surveyor and 455 posts of Draftsmen have been filled up through Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC). Presently, recruitment is in progress for 224 posts of Field Surveyor and 184 posts of Draftsmen. In order to train the new recruits on field and on computers, orders have been issued to reappoint 100 retired Sub Inspectors of Survey. Accordingly, retired officials have been reappointed and the new recruits have been trained.

6.7 Preparation of Village/ Taluk/ District Maps in Tamil

   Based on the Announcement made in the Legislative Assembly in the Financial Year 2014-15, preparation of Village/ Taluk/ District Maps in Tamil Language has been commenced at the Central Survey Office, Chennai. For this purpose, working space and 25 new computers have been provided in order to complete the work in time. So far, all the district and Taluk maps have been Vectorised. Preparation of maps in Tamil language for all villages is in progress. This work, which is being pursued in full swing, will be completed within a year.

   The Village/ Taluk/ District maps will be made available for public on completion of digitization and validation. These maps will also be made available online for downloading through internet. Publishing of Maps in Tamil Language will be of great use to the village people.

   The Village / Taluk / District maps that are useful to the public as well as to other departments of the Government can download the maps and use for their requirements. This effort is first of its kind in the history of Survey department.

6.8 Settlement

   Historically, Government is entitled to a share of the produce of the land owners. The commuted money value of such share is called the Assessment and the procedure pursued in determination of such assessment is known as Settlement of Land Revenue. Under ryotwari settlement, the assessment of land tax is determined with reference to composition of soil, sub-divided into sorts and grades based on the properties of the soil and other factors affecting the fertility of the soil.

   During the British period, cultivators in Zamindari estates were very much affected as the land tax collected from them by the Zamindars and Inamdars was at high rate and also it was not determined based on the fertility of the soil. In order to reduce the burden of land tax on the cultivators and to collect taxes directly by the Government from cultivators, ryotwari settlement was introduced in such estates. To achieve this, several Intermediary Abolition Acts have been enacted.

 1. The Tamil Nadu Estates (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) Act, 1948 (Tamil Nadu Act XXVI/1948)

 2. The Tamil Nadu Inam Estates (Abolition and conversion into Ryotwari) Act, 1963 (Tamil Nadu Act 26/1963).

 3. The Tamil Nadu Leaseholds (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) Act, 1963 (Tamil Nadu Act 27/1963).

 4. The Tamil Nadu Minor Inams (Abolition and conversion into Ryotwari) Act, 1963 (Tamil Nadu Act 30/1963).

 5. The Tamil Nadu Gudalur Janmam Estates (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) Act, 1969 (Tamil Nadu Act 24/1969).

 6. The Tamil Nadu Levy of Assessment in Freehold Lands Act, 1972 (Tamil Nadu Act 31/1973).

 7. The Tamil Nadu (Transferred Territory) Ryotwari Settlement Act, 1964 (Tamil Nadu Act 30/1964)

   The work has been completed in all the areas except in 7 Estates under Tamil Nadu Act 26/1963, 8 villages under the Tamil Nadu Act 30/63. Further, the work is in progress in Janmam lands in The Nilgiris District under the Tamil Nadu Act 24/69.

The details of the Acts under which the settlement work pending are as follows:

I. THE TAMIL NADU INAM ESTATES (ABOLITION AND CONVERSION INTO RYOTWARI) ACT, 1963 (TAMIL NADU ACT 26/1963)

   The Act provides for the acquisition of rights of land holders in Inam Estates in the State of Tamil Nadu and the introduction of the ryotwari settlement in such estates.

   The Settlement work has been completed in all the estates taken over under this Act except the following 10 estates. The Settlement work could not be completed in time due to various court cases. As the Court cases have been concluded now, action has been taken in such cases.

The present stage of each Estate/ Village is detailed below:

II. THE TAMIL NADU MINOR INAM (ABOLITION AND CONVERSION INTO RYOTWARI) ACT, 1963 (TAMIL NADU ACT 30/1963)

   The Act provides for the acquisition the rights of the Inamdars in minor inams in the State of Tamil Nadu and the introduction of Ryotwari Settlement in such Inams.

   The Settlement work is pending in the following 5 Inam villages only. The settlement work is performed after the completion of various court cases. The present stage of the work is as follows:

III. THE TAMIL NADU GUDALUR JANMAM ESTATES (ABOLITION AND CONVERSION INTO RYOTWARI) ACT, 1969 (TAMIL NADU ACT 24/1969)

   The Act provides for the acquisition of rights of the Janmies in Janmam estates of the Gudalur Taluk and Pandalur Taluk in Nilgiris District and the introduction of Ryotwari Settlement.

   The Civil Appeals and Writ Petitions had been filed by some of the leaseholders and janmies before the Supreme Court against the inclusion of the Act in the 9th Schedule of the Constitution and the three Judges bench of the Supreme court finally disposed them by upholding such inclusion in the 9th schedule of the Constitution of India. The details of the settled area so far are as follows:

   Out of 17014.43 acres declared as Forests under this Act, 5,809.96 acres are covered by court cases and 11,204.47 acres have been handed over to the Forest department vide G.O.(Ms.)No.363, Revenue[SS-I(1)]Department, dated 28.11.2011. With regard to the balance area of 34,986.28 acres for settlement, the High Court had directed the Settlement Officer/ District Revenue Officer to receive the petitions from the petitioners and consider them under section 8 or 9 of the Act. Accordingly, the Settlement Officer (Gudalur Janmam Lands) has received 566 petitions and its present status is given below:

6.8.1 SCHEMES

6.8.1.1 Natham Settlement

   The Government, in the notification published in G.O.(Ms.)No.1971, Revenue Department, dated 14.10.1988, have ordered for the performance of Settlement work in village Natham sites/ house sites and also in the agricultural lands used for non-agricultural purposes, in the entire State except for Chennai old city. Accordingly, till 1999, this work had been completed in all the districts except 12-taluks, in the Kanniyakumari district (4-taluks), the Nilgiris district (6-taluks), Kancheepuram district (1-taluk), Tiruvallur district (1-taluk) and also in 31-added villages of the Chennai district.

   In 2007, this work has been commenced in these areas. The work had been completed in Kanniyakumari district (4-taluks), Kancheepuram district (1-taluk) and 31-added villages of the Chennai district. It is in progress in the Nilgiris and Thiruvallur district.

6.8.1.2 Revenue Follow Up Work In Hill Villages

   The Government, in the notification published in G.O.(Ms.)No.113, Revenue Department, dated 2.2.1995, have ordered for the commencement of Revenue Follow-up Work in 67 Hill Villages in the State. The work has been completed in 60 hill villages and pattas were issued.

   In Patchamalai hill village in Gangavalli Taluk of Salem District, the pattas pertaining to agricultural lands have been issued and the work is in process with respect to Natham areas.

   The work is in progress in Anamalai hill village of Valparai taluk in Coimbatore District, 4 Hill villages of Kollimalai taluk in Namakkal District and Elagiri hill village of Tirupattur taluk in Vellore district.

6.8.1.3 Revenue Follow-Up Work In Corporations And Municipal Towns

   The Government, in the notification published in G.O.(1D)No.103, Revenue [S.S.II-1] Department, dated 1.3.2007 have ordered for the commencement of Revenue Follow-up Work in all the Municipalities and the Corporations of the State (except Chennai old city) in order to update the registries in Revenue Records, to issue pattas to land holders, to prepare and hand over the records for the use in Revenue Administration.

   Out of 123 Municipalities, the work is in progress in 65 Municipalities and work has been completed in 7-Municipalities. Out of 12 Corporations, work is in progress in 5 Corporations with 9 units. The above said work is performed by 74 Settlement Tahsildar units. On completion of the work in the existing units, the work will be commenced in the remaining areas.

6.9 Survey of Wakf Properties

   In general, Wakf refers to a place of worship, religious or charitable institutions professing Islam. The properties, whether movable or immovable, belong to each wakf are known as wakf properties.

   The Wakf Act 1995 (Central Act 43/1995) enacted by the Central Government in order to provide for the better administration of wakfs and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

   As per section 4 of Act, the State Government have to appoint a Survey Commissioner of Wakf for the State, as many Additional and Assistant Survey Commissioners of Wakfs in order to collect the details such as number of wakfs in the State; Category such as Shia and Sunni; nature and object of each wakf; gross income, Land Revenue, Cess and taxes payable, expenses made etc., as on the date of commencement of the Act in the State.

   The survey of wakf properties has been undertaken throughout the State by all the regular District Revenue Officers who have been designated as Additional Survey Commissioners of wakfs for this purpose, within their jurisdiction/ Districts, under the control and supervision of Director of Survey and Settlement who has been designated as Commissioner of survey of Wakfs.

   The work has been completed in 10 districts so far and the work is in progress in all other districts.

Details of Survey Status of Wakf Board properties