Sri Vijaya Puram, Sept. 8: Shri Bishnu Pada Ray, Hon’ble Member of Parliament, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, has drawn urgent attention to the growing hardships being faced by citizens in matters relating to the sub-division of landholdings under the A&N Islands Land Revenue and Land Reforms Regulation, 1966.
While appreciating the citizen-friendly initiatives taken by the Administration in recent months, particularly in digitalization of services and improved transparency in revenue administration, the Shri Bishnu Pada Ray, Hon’ble MP highlighted that the procedure for land sub-division has become unnecessarily cumbersome and is now causing widespread difficulties for ordinary landholders across the territory.
Concerns raised by the MP:
1. Sub-division of land is a statutory and continuous process under Sections 84 and 148 of the Regulation, essential for keeping records accurate and up-to-date.
2. In most cases, sub-division requests arise due to inheritance by legal heirs or transfer of shares to purchasers, and without proper sub-division, heirs and purchasers remain only as co-tenants on paper, which leads to avoidable disputes and litigation.
3. Recently, the Revenue Department has been insisting that citizens produce proposals strictly in the form of Field Measurement Books (FMB) prepared by private surveyors. This practice has led to frequent discrepancies, rejections, harassment, and even complaints of unfair practices.
MP’s suggestions for streamlining the process:
1. Applications for sub-division based on succession or purchase of defined shares should be processed promptly on the strength of Record-of-Rights entries, supported by simple sketches or consent notes.
2. Final measurement, demarcation and certification must be carried out by the official Survey and Land Records staff to ensure accuracy and transparency.
3. The practice of insisting on private FMB-based proposals should be discontinued, as it creates hardship and undermines public trust.
Shri Bishnu Pada Ray stressed that sub-division is not a technical hurdle but a tool to reduce civil and criminal litigation, improve land governance, and strengthen digital land records. Therefore, he urged the Chief Secretary of A&N Administration to intervene in the matter and issue comprehensive instructions to streamline the sub-division process, ensuring that the Revenue Department performs its statutory duties in a transparent and citizen-friendly manner.