IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

The Bhoomi project in Karnataka and Dharitree in Assam’s Lakhimpur area are two such instances

A lot of attention has been paid to the computerisation of land records across the country. The award-winning Bhoomi project in Karnataka is widely known. There are other successful projects in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal as well.

Bhoomi is a project where the paper-based land record patta is scanned and stored digitally. All the relevant information about a particular piece of land (including neighbours, size, special characteristics, ownership, etc.) are captured, verified and indexed for speedy access.

Processes to ensure authenticity of the documents are already established. To take care of ‘mutation’—change of ownership—a separate process was defined, so that the land record is dynamic. Since land records are not used frequently by all farmers, a system of ‘renewal’ is built in. Every two years, farmers are to renew the record. Relevant information is revalidated at that time, so that any missed-out transition—loss of property or death of owners—is captured before it is too late.

Bhoomi was inaugurated on Feb 6, 2001, by the then Karnataka chief minister, SM Krishna, in his hometown, Maddur. It provides a way for getting a print-out of land records without middlemen. It uses sophisticated software developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and uses a biometric-based security system. By an amendment to the Karnataka Land Act, Bhoomi managed to get the necessary legal support, a key ingredient for success.

It covers 20 million land records of 6.7 million landowners in 176 talukas. With a user-charge of Rs 15 for a print-out, the project has been self-sustaining after the initial investment. By October 2004, farmers had taken 22 million copies of land records, paying Rs 344 million.

The benefits of Bhoomi include a reduction in the time taken to obtain a print-out, which earlier varied from three to 30 days, to just a couple of minutes; reduced time for incorporation of mutation from about 200 days to about 35 days; and, enabling farm credit to be availed of in just five days, from the earlier 25-30 days. Bhoomi won the national award for e-governance in 2005. It is the brain child of Rajeev Chawla, secretary, government of Karnataka.

Among the other projects for computerising land records, the Dharitree experiment in Assam is particularly interesting. It is the first web-based land records management system in India. Initiated in 2004 by the Lakhimpur division of NIC, it uses the Assamese script (using GIST technology) and a map-based interface to capture, render, display and query land records. It won an e-governance award in 2005.

Since Dharitree uses a web-based interface, one need not worry about investing in exclusive computer terminals, but can extend the service to general-purpose kiosks, like the e-seva counters of Andhra Pradesh. NIC implemented Bhoomi in Karnataka during 1999-2003. Dharitree was implemented at a much faster pace, that too with better access features—an important element of scalability. As India extends applications to other states, speed of execution is a big plus point.

Among global experiments, e-LINZ launched by the New Zealand government, allows authorised personnel (surveyors and government officials) to search land records using spatial search (using LandXML) and certify these using high-end security tools. Instead of mere distribution of land records, e-LINZ has addressed the issue of electronic delivery, associated security issues, registration, verification and valuation by all the stakeholders. Several wings of the government that had control over land data have been synergised, so that electronic delivery of land information is possible for citizens and businesses from a single portal.

Anyone buying or selling property in New Zealand will interact with this system. As of 2005, 1.5 million title requests, 500,000 titles and 18,000 survey plans had been transacted in a year over e-LINZ.

As India is investing heavily in e-governance, it’s time we studied multiple pilot projects, learnt the lessons, avoided the mistakes, scaled up quickly and addressed sustenance issues. As Ramesh Rama-nathan of Janaagraha notes, India does not have 100,000 problems to solve, but 100 problems repeated 1,000 times. It’s time we addressed these 100 problems and moved on. Else, India will become a graveyard of e-governance pilot projects!

• Bhoomi has digitalised land records; it covers 6.7 million landowners
• Dharitree is India’s first web-based land records management system
• As India invests in e-governance, it will have to avoid mistakes, scale up fast

Autor: S Sadagopan

Quelle: The Financial Express, 17.03.2006