Forged land documents could lead to FIR, 7-year jail, says Deputy CM

The minister was giving the government reply after the debate on ₹2,190.15-crore budgetary demand of the department

Revenue and land reforms minister Vijay Kumar Sinha, who is also the Deputy CM, on Friday said in the Vidhan Sabha that the government was committed to reducing land disputes and for this the government has initiated a number of concrete measures, including lodging of FIRs if use of forged documents is detected, which could lead to punishment of seven years jail.

Forged land documents could lead to FIR, 7-year jail, says Deputy CM

“Forged documents are one of the prime reasons behind land disputes and the government will deal with land mafia sternly, while intensifying statewide special land survey. There will be zero tolerance to land mafia and middlemen,” he added.

The minister was giving the government reply after the debate on ₹2,190.15-crore budgetary demand of the department. The Opposition staged walkout minister’s speech alleging rampant corruption and harassment of the poor, though some of them also appreciated the minister for his bold initiatives and crackdown on corruption.

The minister said that the role of police would be confined to maintenance of law and order, when required by revenue officials, and they would not be involved in ensuring possession or construction on disputed land on their own.

“The hearing on the land disputes will also take place in the circle offices and the officials from the police stations will also attend it there. The pendency has come down appreciably but a lot more needs to be done,” he said, adding that the department’s work was directly related to the common masses, as land is an emotive issue, and all efforts were being made to ensure a transparent, accountable, credible and convenient system for time-bound disposal of cases.

Maintaining that the “Bhoomisudhar Jankalyan Samvad” he had undertaken at the division level since December 12 would now be extended to district level, he said specific guidelines are being issued at the department level to deal with cases of similar nature in a time-bound and transparent manner.

The minister said that the response to the department’s initiatives had been encouraging, with disposal of online mutation increasing from 75% to 84%, disposal of cases on Parimarjan Plus portal (for correction) increasing from 10% to 75% and pendency dropping from 25% to 16%.

“Between December and January, the pendency of around 4 million cases related to correction and mutation has been down by 1.150 million,” he added.

Sinha said a time limit of 14 days has been set for mutations having no disputes. “Similarly, for e-measurement of land, there is a specified time period - seven days in undisputed cases and 11 days in cases having any disputes, while the report has to be uploaded within 14 days,” he added.

The minister said that the Bihar AgriStack, a government-backed digital platform designed to streamline agricultural services, provide financial assistance, and improve efficiency in the farming sector, has also gathered speed, with 4 million garnered getting registered within 35 days.

This initiative integrates land records, subsidy management, crop advisory services, and loan assistance under a single system, ensuring direct access for farmers to various benefits, including direct benefit transfers (DBT), real-time market updates, and farm management tools.

The minister said that the ongoing special land survey is also gathering momentum and there is a target of disposal of 4.6 million pending applications by March 31, 2026. “By using technology, the effort is to make the process paperless, transparent and quick, while ensuring availability of land records online,” he added.

He said that the department has created 3,303 new posts of revenue officials, while 8,472 posts were approved earlier and the present working strength is 3,767.