Bengal sees about 250% increase in land mutation between Aug & Nov

Kolkata: Bengal has witnessed an increase of almost 250 per cent in land mutation in August-November this year compared to that of the corresponding period in 2020.

This became possible with a special drive of the state Land and Land Reforms department following the directions of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, when she announced making Bengal number one in industries and commerce.

According to the data of the state Land and Land Reforms department, as many as 18.01 lakh applications for mutation of land were disposed off and mutation certificates were delivered between August 1, 2020 and November 25, 2020. In the same time period in 2021, the number of mutation cases disposed of went up to 44.99 lakh. The increase in this period has been 249.74 per cent. As many as 60,380 mutations were disposed of only on November 25 this year. It was only 36,728 on November 25 in 2020, according to sources in the state secretariat.

At the same time stress has been given to ensure completion of the pending cases of land conversion. It needs a mention that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, while heading the administrative review meeting in Howrah, has directed the senior officers of the state Land and Land Reforms department to ensure fast completion of the disposal of the pending mutation and conversion cases.

Officers of the Land and Land Reforms department, mainly revenue officers and above, need to turn up at the offices due to data security issues to dispose of the mutation applications. With the lockdown due to Covid pandemic and subsequent office with 25 per cent manpower for a certain period of time, the number of pending cases went up to 25 lakh by the end of July 2021.

Beside the pending cases, new applications for mutation of land and property are received everyday in all districts. Most of the applications are now received online. As a result there was a normal flow of application during lockdown. "So we need to clear the new applications besides disposing off a part of the pending cases. For example, we have received 2,328 applications for mutation only in Birbhum district on November 25 and around 4,583 applications were disposed of on the same day," said a senior officer of the Land and Land Reforms department.

Daily basis monitoring is being done centrally on the number of mutation cases disposed of by each concerned officer and show cause notices are issued if a drop in disposal, maintaining all norms, is noticed in any block. Even the officers work on Saturdays and Sundays to clear the pending mutation cases.

With the special drive taken by the state government, only around 9.74 lakh cases out of the pending 25 lakh cases are remaining to be disposed of and it would be completed in the next few days. "As per the direction of the Chief Minister, our endeavour is to ensure service at the right time for the common people and all necessary steps have been taken for the same," the officer said.