A government plot or a grazing field in a Gujarat village could not be cleared of encroachments until someone paid to measure it. The Revenue Department has now removed that step. Under a circular dated October 26, measurement of public roads, government wasteland and gauchar (village grazing land) for encroachment removal will carry no fee from any department, DeshGujarat reported. The same circular tells officials to treat these surveys as top priority.
The fee file that held up demolition drives
Until now, a boundary survey meant paying the prescribed charge at the District Inspector of Land Records (DILR) office. When the land belonged to the government, the body seeking the survey, whether a gram panchayat, a municipality or the Roads and Buildings department, first had to get that fee sanctioned through its own administrative approvals. Gujarat First reported that this paperwork often stalled surveys for months, and that encroachers used the gap.
None of the reports give the fee amount. Gujarat First puts the weight on the wait: one arm of the state had to approve a payment to another before anyone measured, and a shop front or compound wall stayed on the grazing land while that file moved.
Gujarat First lists a wider set of land than the bare three categories: river and stream beds, and both sides of state highways and panchayat roads, alongside government wasteland and gauchar. It adds that DILR and survey officers must finish measurement soon after an application arrives, and that collectors and mamlatdars have been asked to push the work.
Why the tape measure matters in court
Officials who skip the survey risk losing in court. In January, Justice Mauna M Bhatt of the Gujarat High Court ordered status quo on a removal drive in Palanpur, Banaskantha, after a Taluka Development Officer acted against structures said to be on gauchar land without any measurement on record, LiveLaw reported. The court asked the authorities to file an affidavit stating whether any measurement had been taken.
The circular addresses that problem. A free, quick survey gives a taluka office a fixed boundary before the bulldozer arrives, and a record to defend if the occupant goes to court. It also gives the state firmer ground for cases under the Gujarat Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act, which needs the encroached area pinned down.
Grazing land in a dry year
Gauchar is common land set aside for village cattle. In Kutch and the Saurashtra coast, where the state has just declared four districts drought-affected and funded fodder and cattle camps (our earlier report), a cleared grazing field has direct value for livestock owners this winter.
For a resident, the change has a practical edge. A sarpanch or ward councillor who complains about a road or grazing plot being occupied no longer has to wait for a fee approval before the survey. The request can go straight to the DILR office. ETV Bharat Gujarat noted that the results will still depend on how fast district and taluka officials act once the boundary is fixed.
The circular does not cover private disputes. A farmer measuring a boundary with a neighbour still pays the normal survey fee. None of the reports so far give a target number of surveys or a deadline for completing them.
Sources: DeshGujarat, Gujarat First, ETV Bharat Gujarat, LiveLaw
This report was written with AI assistance from the publicly reported sources linked here; each fact was cross-checked against at least two of them.