Date:11/01/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/01/11/stories/2005011101301700.htm

Back AP CM lays foundation stone for academy of land information

Our Bureau

Hyderabad , Jan. 10

THE Chief Minister, Dr Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, on Monday laid the foundation stone for new buildings of the Andhra Pradesh Academy of Land Information Management (AALIM) at Gachibowli on the outskirts of the State capital.

The academy, being built under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme, is coming up on a 15.5-acre campus at an estimated cost of Rs 9 crore. To be constructed in two phases, it will have a built-up area of 1.3-lakh square feet (sq. ft.) and can accommodate 300 trainees at a time. An amount of Rs 4 crore is earmarked for a 60,000-sq. ft. construction in the first phase.

The Chief Minister also cleared a proposal for creating an Integrated Land Information System on a pilot basis in Nizamabad district at a cost of Rs 20 crore. The project involves the creation of comprehensive digital land records and the integration of revenue, survey and registration functions. It also aims at the replacement of the existing defective system of registration of deeds with a system of registration of pucca titles.

AALIM is the latest in the series of initiatives taken up by the State Government for modernising the Department of Survey, Settlements and Land Records (DSSL). The existing AP Survey Training Academy will be merged with AALIM.

Apart from the officials of DSSL, it will provide training to functionaries of the Revenue Department, IAS officers, judicial officers and for persons who intend to become licensed surveyors. The academy will also undertake research and development activities in land information management.

In due course, the Chief Minister said, the academy would become an important institution catering to the requirements of Government agencies, corporates and individuals engaged in collection, management and use of land information.

The State Revenue Minister, Mr Dharmana Prasada Rao, said that the Government had accorded the permission to fill up the vacant posts in DSSL. Accordingly, recruitment is being carried out for eight posts of Assistant Directors, 36 posts of Deputy Inspectors of Survey and 439 posts of Deputy Surveyors. The Government also proposed to reorganise the structure of DSSL to make it more efficient to meet present-day requirements.