Greater Noida authority to undertake GIS mapping to protect government land

With a view to protect government land from encroachment in all 124 villages under its jurisdiction, the Greater Noida authority has decided to carry out a geographic information system (GIS) survey soon, officials aware of the matter said.

After the GIS survey, the authority will start a drive to free up its land from encroachers and use it for the different purposes, including providing residential plots to farmers whose land has been acquired for the planned development of the city.

The move comes after the authority realised that most of its land has been grabbed by different people. Officials said the survey will also help the authority determine the extent of land outside the village’s original abadi (settlement) is used for residential purposes by farmers.

“To carry out the GIS survey, we will enlist an expert agency. Once the survey is completed, we will be able to establish the exact area that has been encroached on by land grabbers in different villages. Initially, the survey will cover 85 villages and, later, the rest of the villages will be covered,” said Ravikumar NG, chief executive officer, Greater Noida authority.

According to the rules, the authority is likely to issue a tender in order to select the expert agency for undertaking the survey. The authority hopes to start the survey next month and complete the task within two months, said officials in the know of the matter, adding that drones will be used to carry out the survey.

Currently, the authority carries out regular drives to free its land from grabbers and also demolish illegal constructions. But after the survey, it is likely that the authority will launch a mega drive against land grabbers to demolish the illegal construction and free up its land meant for planned development, said officials.

“The survey will determine how much land has been grabbed in each village. After that, the authority will collate data of land grabbed, village-wise. This land can be used to allot residential plots to farmers whose land was acquired for development. In the absence of land, the authority is currently unable to allot residential plots to such farmers,” said another Greater Noida authority, asking not to be named.

According to rules, authority officials said it allots 6% of total land acquired to the land owner for residential purposes. There are hundreds of farmers, who are yet to get residential plots under this rule. And these farmers keep protesting against the Greater Noida authority, thereby disrupting the smooth functioning of the authority. Officials believe that freed up land in each village could be alloted as residential plots to farmers, thereby resolving a long standing issue.

The city of Greater Noida was established in 1992 over 38,000 hectares comprising 124 villages. Officials said they do not have data on how much government land has been grabbed over the years, but they believe the GIS survey will arrive at a figure that will be “huge”.

“Farmers, who were influential, got residential plots against their acquired land. But farmer, who are not influential are yet to get such plots. If the authority will not resolve these issues, then farmers will continue to stage protests outside the authority’s sector Knowledge Park-4 office,” said Vikas Kumar, a farmer of Sunpura village.