LAND CONVERSION FOR HOUSE CONSTRUCTION: FAST APPROVAL

 Minister K Rajan Declared Impending Modifications to Existing Standards

 Minister K Rajan said that operational standards will be changed to allow faster approval for land type changes intended for house construction. For this, a meeting of officials from the Revenue and Local Government Departments will be called.

 Under the exemption in the Paddy Field and Wetland Conservation Act, local body secretaries can quickly grant permission to build houses up to 1288 square feet in areas marked as land. The exemption is subject to the condition that the land must be owned before August 12, 2008, when the law came into effect. Owners of land owned before the law came into effect can use 10 cents of land in panchayats and 5 cents in urban areas to build their own houses if they do not have a house anywhere in the district.

Priority standards for immediate land conversion will be changed for land below 25 cents, excluding data bank land. A permanent Adalat system will be established to resolve land conversion applications at the Taluk level by granting authority to the Deputy Collector. This Adalat will address applications pertaining to land areas of 25 cents or less. The Minister pointed out the increasing rate at which land conversion applications are being resolved. He also noted the substantial volume of new applications, with more than 500 being submitted online each day.

Land Conversion: 2.67 Lakhs Applications to be Resolved- A substantial number of land conversion applications, totalling 2,67,375, are currently pending resolution in the 71 offices of Deputy Collectors and State Revenue Divisional Officers throughout Kerala. This data reflects the situation as of December 31st, 2024. Between January 10, 2022, and December 31, 2024, total of 543,847 applications were received. The resolution count from this data reached 276,472 applications by December 31st, 2024. The responsibility for resolving applications earlier will be given to Sub Collectors and Revenue Divisional Officers (RDOs) within their 27 Revenue Division offices. Since July 2024, one Deputy Collector in each taluk has been authorized to make decisions on these applications.