GUWAHATI: Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma launched Mission Basundhara 3.0, a scheme to enhance land revenue services in Assam, at a function held at Srimanta Sankardev Kalakshetra on Sunday.
The third edition of the Mission, incepted in 2021, introduces eight new digitised land services and aims to further streamline land records, releasing updated land maps for Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts.
Speaking at the launch, the chief minister said, “Under Mission Basundhara 3.0, steps will also be taken to digitise various land-related services and publish maps for the benefit of the people of the state as several new rules have been implemented to simplify the process of giving land rights to the people.”
“Through this comprehensive Mission, we aim to allot land ownership to priority groups at the earliest and bring transparency to various land-related services. Mission Basundhara 3.0 will be another firm step taken by our government to safeguard the land rights and identity of the people of Assam,” he said.
The chief minister further said Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe communities along with tea tribes and Gorkhas need not prove three-generation ancestry to be entitled to land rights under Mission Basundhara.
“People belonging to SC, ST, Tea Tribes and Gorkhas will not be required to prove three generation ancestry as they are the sons of the soil. However, for others to be entitled to land rights under Mission Basundhara, three-generation ancestry is required,” Sarma said.
Emphasising the significance of land reforms, the chief minister said, “Assam has initiated a series of land reforms, including digitisation and conversion of non-cadastral to cadastral villages. The eventual aim is to introduce land passbooks in Assam. We are progressing towards that. I am of the opinion that within one or two years, Assam will go to the extent of issuing land passbooks to land owners,” he said.
He recalled that immediately after setting out to implement this mission, the state government was astounded by the unprecedented number of applications, which were received from different beneficiaries.
“This receipt of applications thereby validated the state government’s land related initiatives in Assam. The state government disposed of eight lakh applications in nine months under Mission Basundhara 1.0,” the chief minister said.
“Moreover, realising the immense potential, especially in conferring land rights to the indigenous people of the state, our government launched the second edition of Mission Basundhara in November 2022 and gave land rights to over two lakh indigenous people within one year,” he added.
The chief minister also launched the Project Closed User Group (CUG) of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA).
CUG, it may be mentioned, is a contiguous special series of mobile numbers, which will be allotted to the officials and staff under the Revenue and Disaster Management Department for facilitating seamless communication and efficient coordination during emergencies.
Under project CUG, government officials of the department will be equipped with specially allocated SIM cards for critical communication.
Besides, Sarma also launched the revenue department’s Digidoc, a digital directory for non-registrable and optional registrable documents. The directory will streamline services, reduce processing time and enhance public convenience and improve accessibility and efficiency.
On the occasion, he also handed over a financial grant of Rs 1 lakh each for the digital upgrade of the offices of the mouzadars across the state.
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