Patna: Deputy CM-cum-revenue and land reforms minister Vijay Kumar Sinha on Friday informed the state assembly that the department would proactively contribute to the creation of a land bank initiated by the industries department for industrial use. He also said 16,584 new recruitments would be made at various levels in his department.“The industrial scenario is looking up in the state, for which the industries department has initiated the process afresh for the creation of a land bank. The revenue and land reforms department will be proactive in contributing to the creation of the land bank,” Sinha said, adding that his department has decided to recruit 16,584 people through an agency to man it at various levels.Sinha said this while giving the govt’s reply to the House debate on his department’s budget worth Rs2,190.15 crore for 2025-26 fiscal, on which a cut motion had been moved by RJD member Rahul Kumar. Later, while the opposition members walked out of the House, the budget was passed by voice vote.In his reply to the debate, Sinha dwelt at length on the ‘Jan Kalyan Samvad’ launched in Dec last year, involving circle officers (COs) and complainants. He said the dialogue would be resumed in March and would also be conducted at the district level.Circle-level interaction and dialogue between COs and landowners helped address complaints regarding delays in rectification of names and other discrepancies in land records, tardiness in completing land mutation at the circle level, and issues related to the activities of the ‘land mafia’ and alleged partisan police intervention in land disputes.Sinha said the introduction of online facilities and digitisation of office activities had facilitated monitoring from the top to the circle level of applications submitted by landowners and their disposal. “As many as 46 lakh applications have been submitted, and 34 lakh of them have been screened for disposal,” Sinha said.He added that 40 lakh of the total applications are pleas for rectification of wrongful entry of names of landowners and accordingly blamed the agency contracted for data entry. Sinha said a timeline has been fixed for the disposal of particular types of cases, such as 15 days for land mutation.Pointing to the improved efficiency of the department, he said a ‘farmer registry’ of 40 lakh landowners has been created. He said the state police headquarters has directed police personnel at the police station level to remain confined to law and order duties.“They have been asked to intervene in matters related to land disputes only when requested by the COs,” Sinha said.To control the activities of the land mafia, a provision has been made for seven-year imprisonment if it is found that fake land documents have been used for the acquisition and transfer of a particular chunk of land, Sinha said.
