Thiruvananthapuram: The head of Registration department has notified sub-registrars to hold the decision to increase the fair value of land and the registration fees.
The decision was contained in the last budget to increase the fair value of land will not be implemented untilfurther notice. Indications are that the decision was taken because the hike during the Lok Sabha elections could affect the image of the government. If implemented, it would have doubled the current land price.
The message from the department head which came through Whatsapp, and not via a department head's order, has created fear in sub-registrars, that it could affect the pension of them. With an order in force, and the sub-registrars not enforcing it, there would a revenue loss which the officials feared would be recovered from their pension.
Government had the plan to increase the fair value of land last year, but it was derailed. They even formed committees for the implementation of this in three months. T his committee consisted of sub-registrars, village officers, junior superintendentsof taluk offices and the officers of the department of land survey, and was directed to decide the price of land under 200 survey numbers per day. The government had planned to correct al the errors in fixing fair value, for which retired revenue officers were also appointed on daily wage to complete this process.
But the process of fixing fair value stopped prematurely due to the pressure from staff organizations of revenue department, who cited the difficulties to determine the value of 200 survey numbers daily.