A DRASTIC OVERHAUL

On September 7, the Tela­ngana government annou­nced a suspension of land registration services in the state, with immediate effect.

- Amarnath K. Menon

Nearly four decades after then chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh, N.T. Rama Rao, abolished the Patel-patwari system in grass­ roots administration, chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao is implementing a new, equally comprehensive structural change in the administration of land ownership. Among other major chang­ es, the new system abolishes the posts of a village revenue officer (VRO) and vil­lage revenue assistant (VRA). With this, about 4,800 VROs and 21,000 VRAs will cease to play a role in the manage­ment of land records in villages. While suspending registration services, the government also instructed VROs and VRAs to hand over all land records to the offices of district collectors for safekeeping until the new system is in place. These documents are to be main­tained at the mandal (village cluster) level, under the custody of tehsildars.