By vdreams (VDreams -Ground Report)
With the cancellation of Pattadar passbooks printed during Jaganmohan Reddy’s regime, which had his images, the government has now decided to distribute new passbooks in villages where the re-survey of agricultural lands has been completed.
During Jagan’s tenure, the re-survey was marred by several irregularities, while the re-survey done in Chandrababu’s government was riddled with errors. The root cause of all these mistakes is the failure to update Adangals and other revenue records. Survey teams carried out re-surveys without doing proper ground truthing and validation.
In many cases, barren lands around fields were illegally added to big farmers’ accounts in exchange for bribes. The holdings of poor farmers were shown as reduced, and several were not even issued 9(2) notices. When asked, officials argued that 9(2) notices do not need to be given for notional accounts or for those not enjoying possession. This goes directly against official guidelines, which clearly state that 9(2) notices must be issued to all landowners listed in Webland under the AP Re-survey Project. Even the re-survey toll-free helpline confirmed that 9(2) notices are mandatory, as they are meant to allow farmers to verify land measurements. These notices have nothing to do with land title disputes.
Many farmers had no information about surveys being conducted. As per approved procedures, if a farmer could not attend in person for any reason, the survey should have been conducted even through a video call—but such rules were not followed. Appeals were supposed to be attended by mobile survey teams, but that promise too was never implemented.
The irregularities of Jagan’s reign are well known; now, the very re-survey that was full of illegalities is being used as the basis to issue new passbooks. Applications submitted at revenue conferences piled up without resolution, but officials sent false reports to the government saying cases were “settled.” Even when farmers submitted representations to Tahsildars to correct mistakes, no one paid attention.
Errors and Corruption
The re-survey project was meant to be part of a nationwide initiative to clean up land records and reduce farmers’ hardships. But in reality, officials used the survey as an opportunity for corruption. They carried out surveys without updating records properly and ignored farmers’ complaints. Tahsildars falsely reported that grievances were resolved, and no inquiries were conducted into farmers’ petitions.
Missing Records
In Anakapalli district, key documents like land ceiling records, SFA files and other vital registers were missing from Tahsildar offices, yet re-surveys were conducted. Farmers’ lands were wrongly placed under Section 22(A), causing them severe problems. Lands meant for ceiling beneficiaries were illegally transferred to purchasers during re-surveys, with registrations finalized by sub-registrars. Some farmers’ extents were altered, while some lands were shown in the names of others—sometimes by mistake, sometimes deliberately. We Dreams collected supporting evidence on these issues.
Although modern technology like drones and rovers was used for the re-survey, which should leave no room for inconsistencies, survey officials still misled farmers claiming that “5–10 cents variation per acre is natural.”
Arbitrary Deadlines
Another controversy is the reduction of the re-survey timeline from 90 days to just 60 days. Even revenue officers questioned how quality can be ensured with such a short deadline.
If new passbooks are issued with all these mistakes, farmers will once again have to struggle to get them corrected. This will also damage the government’s credibility. Printing tamper-proof passbooks involves huge costs, and correcting errors later will cost even more. Yet, without considering these factors, the government is rushing to issue passbooks.
The 22(A) Lands Issue
In its August Cabinet meeting,
