Our Bureau

Thiruvananthapuram , June 14

THE Kerala Government will issue title deeds or possession certificates to one lakh persons in the State this year.

Over the last four years, the Revenue Department has issued a record 51,120 title deeds and 20,000 possession certificates, according to the Revenue Minister, Mr K.M. Mani.

He told newspersons here on Tuesday that 71,114 farmers, who had settled in forest-land before January 1, 1977, had applied for title deeds, and that nearly 25,000 of them had already been given the deeds. The remaining applicants would be given the deeds in this year.

The Minister said that a core committee had been constituted for framing an intellectual property rights policy for the State.

The draft policy prepared by the committee will be published this year.

Further, an intellectual property rights information system will be established in the Law Department after incorporating the necessary data-base. A scheme for issuing kisan pass-books that can be used in lieu of all land-related documents will be introduced soon in the State. The pass-books will do away with the need for pledging of documents by farmers to avail of loans from the financial institutions.

The Minister said that the existing apartment ownership law was not adequate for the maintenance of common amenities and thus a new law envisaging formation of separate societies for each apartment would be framed.

Referring to the functioning of the State Housing Board, Mr Mani said that the Board had resumed sanctioning of loans, after having discontinued it for some years due to default in repayment to Housing and Urban Development Corporation (Hudco).

The Board signed a `Default Resolution Package' with Hudco in 2002, following which the former received concessions to the tune of Rs 158 crore.

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