Chapter II REVENUE DIVISIONS, REVENUE OFFICERS AND

(1) The State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, divide the territories to which this Act extends into one or more Revenue districts, and may similarly divide any Revenue district into subdivisions and blocks and may alter the limits of, or abolish any Revenue district, sub-division or blocks. (2) The districts, sub-divisions and block existing at the commencement of this Act shall continue respectively to be districts, sub-divisions and blocks under this Act unless otherwise provided under sub-section(1 ).

The Government or such officer as may be authorised by the Government in this behalf, may appoint the following classes of Revenue Officers, namely:- (a) Revenue Commissioner (ex-officio) ; (b) Deputy Commissioner ; (c) Additional Deputy Commissioner; (d) Director of Settlement and Land Management; (e) Sub-divisional Officers/EAC; (f) Circle Officer/BOO ; (g) Deputy Director or Assistant Director, Officer Surveyor of Settlement and Land Management ; (h) Survey and Settlement Officers; (i) Assistant Survey and Settlement Officers ; (j) Supervisor Kanungos/Recorder Kanungos ; (k) Mandals ; and Chainman (l) Such other village officers as may be appointed by order made under this Act.

(1) Each districts shall be placed under the charge of a Deputy Commissioner who shall be in charge of the revenue administration of the district and exercise the powers and discharge the duties of the Deputy Commissioner under this Act or any other law for the time being in force and shall exercise so far as is consistent therewith such other powers of superintendence and control within the district and over the officers subordinate to him as may from time to time be prescribed. (2) The Additional Deputy Commissioner shall exercise all such powers and perform all such duties of the Deputy Commissioner or other Revenue Officer as the State Government may specify by notification in the official Gazette. (3) Each Sub-division shall be placed under the charge of a sub-divisional officer/Extra Assistant Commissioner. (4) Each circle or block shall be placed under the charge of a Circle Officer or a Block Development Officer as the case may be. (5) The duties and powers of the sub-divisional officers, the Circle Officers and other Revenue Officers shall be such as may be imposed or conferred on them by or under this Act or any other law in force for the time being or any general or special order of the Government published in the official Gazette in this hehpilf

The officers specified in terms (d), (t), (h), and (i) of Section 4 shall have power to take cognizance of all matters connected with the survey of land and the settlement of the revenue-rates and the preparation and maintenance of land records and other registers and shall exercise all such powers and perform all such functions and perform all such duties as may be prescribed by or under this Act or by any general or special order of the Government published in the official Gazette.

It shall be lawful for the Government to appoint one and the same person by virtue of office to any two or more assignments provided for in this Chapter, and to confer on any officer of the Government all or any of the powers and duties of any of the revenue officers including that of the Deputy Commissioner.

The Government shall, from time to time, by notification in the official Gazette, specify the revenue officers who shall use Seal and also the size and description of Seal which each such officer shall use.

(1) All lands, public roads, lanes and paths and bridges, ditches, dikes, and fences on or beside the same, the beds of rivers, streams, nallahs, lakes and tanks, and all canals and water courses and all standing and flowing water, and rights in or over the same or appertaining thereto, which are not the property of any person or community are hereby declared to be the property of the Government. (2) Unless it is otherwise expressly provided in the terms of a grant made by the Government, the right to mines, quarries, mineral products including mineral oil, natural gas and petroleum shall vest in the Government, and it shall have all the powers necessary for the proper enjoyment of such rights.

(1) The right to all trees, jungles or other natural products growing on land set apart for forest reserves and all trees, brush wood, jungle or other natural product, where-ever growing, except in so far as the same may be the property of any person or community, vests in the Government, and such trees, brush wood, jungle or other natural products shall be preserved or disposed of in such manner as may be prescribed, keeping in view the interests of the people in the area with regard to the user of the natural products. (2) All road side trees which have been planted and reared by or under the orders or at the expense of the Government and all trees which have been planted and reared at the expense of local authorities by the side of any road belonging to the Government vest in the Government.

Subject to rules made in this behalf under this Act, the Deputy Commissioner may set apart land belonging to the Government for pasturage for the village cattle, for forest reserves or for any other purpose.

(1) All lands, to whatever purpose applied, are liable to payment of land revenue to the Government. (2) The Government may exempt any land from the liability to such payment by means of special grant or contract or in accordance with the rules made under this Act.

All alluvial lands, newly formed islands, or abandoned river beds, which vest under any law for the time being in force in any holder of land shall be subject in respect of liability to land revenue to the same privileges, conditions and restrictions as are applicable to the original holding by virtue of which such lands, islands or river beds vests in the said holder, but no revenue shall be leviable in respect of any such lands, islands or river beds unless the area of the same exceeds 5 (five) acre.

Every holder of land paying land revenue in respect thereof shall be entitled subject to such rules as may be made in this behalf, to a decrease of assessment if any portion thereof, not being less than one acre in extent, is lost by diluvion.

(1) The assessment of land revenue on any land shall be made or deemed to have been made with respect to the use of the land. (a) for purposes of agriculture, (b) for industrial or commercial purposes, ( c) as sites for dwelling houses, and, ( d) for any other purposes (2) where land assessed for use for any one purpose is diverted to any other purpose, the land revenue payable upon such land shall, notwithstanding that the term for which the assessment may have been fixed has not expired, be liable to be altered and assessed at a different rate in accordance with the rules made under this Act.

(1) If any person holding land for any purpose wishes to divert such land or any part thereof to any other purpose except agriculture, he shall apply for permission to the competent authority which may, subject to the provisions, of this section and to the rules made under this Act, refuse permission or grant it on such conditions as it may think fit. (2) Permission to divert, may be refused by the competent authority, only on the ground that the diversion is likely to cause a public nuisance or that it is not in the interest of the general public or that the holder is unable or unwilling to comply with the conditions that may be imposed under sub-section (3). (3) Conditions may be imposed on diversion for the following objects and no others namely in order to secure the public health safety and convenience and in the case of land which is to be used as building sites, in order to secure, in addition, that the dimensions, arrangement and accessibility of the sites are adequate for the health and convenience of occupiers or are suitable to the locality. (4) If any land has been diverted without permission by the holder or by any other person with or without the consequent of the holder, the competent authority, on receiving information thereof, may impose on the person responsible for the diversion, a penalty not exceeding Rs. 500, and may proceed in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (1) as if an application for permission to divert had been made. (5) If any land has been diverted in contravention of an order passed or of a condition imposed under any of the foregoing sub-sections, the competent authority may serve a notice on the person responsible for such contravention, directing him, within a reasonable period to be stated in the notice, to use the land for its original purpose or to observe the condition ; and such notice may require such person to remove any structure, to fill up any excavation, or to take such other steps as may be required in order that the land may be used for its original purpose, or that the condition may be satisfied, and the competent authority may also impose on such person a penalty not exceeding Rs. 500 for such contravention and a further penalty not exceeding Rs. 10 for each day during which such contravention continues. Explanation:- "Diversion" in this section means using land for the purpose of agriculture where it is assessed with reference to any other purpose shall not be deemed to be diversion.

The Government may, in accordance with the rules made in this behalf under this Act, grant a remission or suspension of land revenue in such year or years in which crops have failed in any particular notified area.

(1) The following persons shall be primarily liable for the payment of land revenue assessed on land, namely, (a) the person to whom the land belongs ; (b) the tenant or any person in possession of the land, provided that such tenant or other person shall be entitled to credit from the owner of the land for the amount paid by him. (2) Where there are two or more persons liable to pay revenue under sub-section (1), all of them shall be jointly and severally liable for its payment.