This we know - the Earth does not belong to man - man belongs to the Earth. This we know, all things are connected like the blood, which unites one family (rewritten by Ted Perry)

This was the reply of Chief Seattle to “The Great White Chief” from Washington, in response to the offer made by the latter for a large area of Indian land accompanied with a promise of “reservation” for the Indian people. The quote described above is regarded as the most beautiful and profound statement on the EARTH & its Environment ever made. Land and its people define basic framework of any civilization. The resources, their ownership and accessibility of land are some of the fundamental constituents of any system which is meant to govern multilateral aspects like socio-economic; cultural and political aspects of human societies. Soon after India achieved Independence, efforts were made to liberate landowners from the clutches of colonial system by bringing in paradigm shift from tax based approach to land resources management. In India land ownership lies in the name of individuals and not the State. After Independence due significance has been accorded to statistics related to crop, irrigation and land use for them to form a basis for land development in the country. In present day land record systems, a number of records are being maintained at the village, tehsil and district levels as in statement of land holdings, land revenue, rental cropped areas and land use pattern. There are more than 20 registers that are being maintained by Revenue Department. The number of registers varies from State to State though.
Principal records being maintained are

(1) Village map: A pictorial form showing the village and field boundaries;

(2) Field book or ‘khasra’ which is an index to the map, in which changes in the field
boundaries, their area, particulars of tenure-holders, methods of Irrigation, cropped area, other uses of land etc. are recorded.

(3) Records of Right, also known as.‘khatauni’, which records the names and classes of tenure of all occupants of land.

In 1985 it was resolved in Conference of Revenue Ministers to computerize Land Records on pilot basis. The Ministry of Rural Development (MRD), Government of India, took the initiative to identify the deficiencies in the present systems of revenue administration and Land records. It provides funds to States for utilizing IT as a remedial tool to build Land Information System. The 100% Centrally Sponsored Scheme on Computerisation of Land Records (CLR) was started in 1988-89 with the intention to remove the problems inherent in the manual system of maintenance and updating of Land Records to meet the requirements of various group of users. It began as a pilot project in eight Districts/ States viz; Rangareddy (A.P.), Sonitpur (Assam), Singhbhum (Bihar), Gandhinagar (Gujarat), Morena (M.P.), Wardha (Maharashtra), Mayurbhanj (Orissa), and Dungarpur (Rajasthan). It was decided that efforts should be made to computerise core data contained in land records, so as to assist development planning and to make records accessible to people/ planners / administrators. Further, the scheme was extended to other districts as well. When the scheme was reviewed in 1993-94 it was observed that States were finding it difficult to sustain the project due to non-availability of skilled manpower, hardware maintenance etc. So, it was decided to use NIC’s infrastructure and network. NIC upgraded its district centres with latest hardware and software and States were requested to allocate one room near NIC district centre to start data entry operation.

The Project is being implemented in Collaborative manner by Ministry of Rural Development (MRD) & NIC. MRD provides funds to states for Data Collection, Collation, Site preparation etc. and NIC is providing technical support and training etc.

Prime Focus & objectives ·

The Computerisation of Land Records (CLR) could safely claim to be the first initiative of E- Governance in India, at the Grass-root level. The focus of the entire operation has always been to employ state of art information technology (IT) to galvanize and transform the existing land record system of the country.
Ensuring efficient, accurate, transparent delivery mechanism and conflict resolution in ownership.
Providing electronic record of rights (ROR) to land owners at nominal rates
Information empowerment of land owners
Low cost and easily reproducible data for reliable and durable preservation
Value addition and modernization in land administration
Integration with other Data sets towards Comprehensive LIS

Status and related Issues

The manual system of land records in the country is an age-old system. Over the period it has adapted to local practices and traditions. Hence, each state has its own specific way of maintaining the records. There are several ways of transfer and recording of ownership of lands as per the traditional style. These transfers should rightly represent shares and inheritance. Each plot is assigned a particular Identity number for which, particulars of owner(s) and respective shares are recorded in actual fractions. For assessment of tax, land categories and crop related details are also recorded. Village officers are supposed to update these records every harvesting season. Once transfer has been properly notified it should be duly registered. But in actual practice, the system has not been duly adhered to and thereby the village book that records the transactions is the only document with legal standing in maximum cases. Every owner is given a reference map depicting the boundaries and location of plot(s). An ownership document and a document containing physical details of land are also given along with this, referred to as Record of Rights (ROR).

In order to develop appropriate software, LRIS Division of NIC carried out a detailed system study of existing manual system of 17 states. It was noted that these systems were similar to the extent of 60-70 percent in functionality, projecting a requirement for customization. As per the agreement with all concerned it was worked out that initially only attribute data would be converted in electronic formats. For this purpose, a data entry module was developed in DOS or UNIX/FOXBASE environment. Subsequent and mandatory requirement was to provide for data update, data verification and validation. To facilitate all these operations NIC equipped its district centres with appropriate hardware, software and application software. With consistent efforts on the part of NIC Officials, most states could successfully realise this stage.

By this time, technology had changed considerably and a requirement to capture all functions in the workflow, in a GUI environment, surfaced. Thus the operation came face to face with the usual problems of Change Management, Configuration Management and Technology Obsolescence. Porting of data for more than 5000 Talukas posed yet another challenge. Subsequently the Central & State units developed a new system comprising ROR, Mutation and customised Query module and several utilities for data porting, validation and verification on Windows platform.

NIC is extending technological support towards operationalisation at Taluk level. Implementation of such a large system in terms of number of sites and related non-technical issues, could be no less than solving a puzzle. Notwithstanding these issues, NIC state units realised distribution of computerized record of rights to common public in quite a few states. An overview of current state of affairs is as follows :

As of now CLR project is being implemented in 569 districts out of about 599 districts in the country. The Govt of India has provided Rs. 3.80 lacs per Tehsil/Taluk for installation of hardware and software in 2426 Tehsils/ Talukas out of about 6000 in the country. Since inception MRD has released financial assistance of about Rs. 215 crore for computerization of Land records to the states/ UTs

 Highlights

(Source : DLR, MORD Dec’2001)

Goa: Computerised Record of Rights is being issued in all 11 taluks. First state which can claim 100 percent computerization of land records.

Karnataka : Computerised copies of ROR are being distributed in 130 out of 177 taluks to land owners. Touch screen Kiosks and Biometric technology has been deployed.

West Bengal : In 257 blocks , computerized Mouzas (ROR ) is being distributed .

Rajasthan : 18 out of 241 tehsils are distributing Computerised copies to land owners. Data entry and validation is in progress in 140 tehsils

Gujarat: ROR (Form 7/12) being issued in 3 talukas and another 52 are ready for operationalisation.

Tamilnadu: Data entry work is near completion. 50 Taluka computer centers have been setup and ROR is being distributed in 7 talukas.

Sikkim: Data entry is complete for all 4 districts. Computerised ROR is being distributed in one district.

Orissa : Tehsil level computerization is in progress. Hardware and Software is already being procured for more than 70 taluks out of 171 taluks. Training of Patwaris on LRC is going on. The ROR and Mutation s/w is ready. Shall be online shortly.

Andhra Pradesh: Data entry/ Verification over for all 23 Districts.

Haryana - Data entry work has been completed for 19 districts of the State. Setting up of Tehsil centres is in progress.

Madhya Pradesh Tehsil level computer centers are ready in 136 out of 256 taluks.