Guwahati, May 2: A two-day regional workshop on land governance in Northeastern states is being organised at the Assam Administrative Staff College at Khanapara.here from Wednesday.
The workshop, titled “Land Governance in North-East States: Status and impact of policy reforms and regional initiatives on customary and indigenous laws in the Sixth Schedule areas for the states of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura,” will be held under the aegis of the department of land resources, Union ministry of rural development, in association with the BN Yugandhar Centre for Rural Studies of Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration.
Autonomous district council (ADC) being a special feature of these states, the regional workshop is expected to open up a platform for strengthening policy discussions for streamlining the process of modernisation of land record management in the Sixth Schedule areas.
More than 30 participants from the four states, Survey of India, universities comprising officials from land records, revenue and survey and settlement departments, autonomous district councils and academicians will join the workshop.
The participants will discuss and deliberate on issues related to achievements, challenges and the way forward to implement the ‘Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme’ and other initiatives of the central government. They will also explore the means and ways of adaptation of the programmes in the Sixth Schedule areas.
The workshop will be inaugurated by Ajay Tirkey, secretary of the department of land resources (DoLR), Union ministry of rural development, and will see the participation of a high-level team of senior officers of the ministry and senior officials from the governments of the respective Northeast states and autonomous district councils of the region.
The diverse participants consisting of decision makers, policy experts and law makers in the workshop will come together to discuss ways to achieve a faster and more efficient, effective land management system.
The workshop is expected to be informative and useful for various stakeholders as it will be enriched by a special session on World Bank’s land governance framework by an expert from the World Bank and a field exposure visit to a village, where modern technology is being used for survey and settlement of land records.