week 8-14 Feb:
• All details of government land will be available online by June. A GIS based government land information system is being developed to create a complete land inventory across the country, particularly those owned by central government departments and their affiliate organisations.
• At present, most government departments have incomplete information about land they own, how much has been encroached upon and those that are lying vacant. In 2015, Delhi Development Authority had stumbled upon 1,500 acres it did not know about. There may be several such cases, sources said.
• “Once the data is compiled, we may find how huge chunk of public land is being misused. When you have the details, you can take action to get them back and plan development works,” said a top government official.
• Public will also have certain access to the information on the portal.
• Officials said the first such exercise has been taken up following the deadline set by Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). The intention behind this exercise is to map all the government land for easy reference and quick approval of government and private projects.