In landmark Bihar update,a disturbing finding

The survey has found that influential individuals,having systematically taken possession of the land,were also paying land taxes apart from selling and reselling.

When the land and revenue department started the exercise six months ago,one objective was to arm itself with records against the thousands of people whom it would inevitably have to take to court.

We have so far compiled the complete land records of Nalanda and the result is astounding, land and revenue secretary Hukum Singh Meena said. Though we cannot project the illegal possession to government land in all other districts,we just shudder to think about the possible cumulative figures.

The 15 districts being covered now are Vaishali,Muzaffarpur,Purnia,Rohtas,Darbhanga,Bhagalpur,Madhubani,Kishanganj,Araria,Nawada,Buxar,Bhojpur,Jamui and Samastipur,apart from Nalanda. These records will go online by the end of June,with those for all 38 districts targeted by March 2013.

Meena described the effort as a milestone,which would lead to automatic updates of all future sales,re-sales and tax payment. If any middleman tries to sell a plot twice,the computer will not accept it and the person can be tracked, said Meena. Land possession certificates too will go online.

Land has been at the centre of many of Bihars disputes,sometimes vicious enough to lead to murder. During his ongoing Seva Yatra,Nitish Kumar has been telling government officials to help resolve land disputes.