India plans to merge land record schemes

The Department of Land Resources in India has proposed that its land records computerisation project be merged with its other initiative of updating the records for strengthening of the revenue administration in the country.

Stating this at a Parliamentary Consultative Committee Meeting of his Ministry, the Union Minister for Rural Development Dr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh informed that a proposal has been made to merge the two schemes of Computerisation of the Land Records (CLR) and Strengthening of Revenue Administration and Updating of Land Records (SRA&ULR).

“This will benefit the citizens in a big way as the new structure will ensure that they get all land records and related documents from a single source, thereby saving the time and effort involved,” Singh said adding that the PPP mode of service delivery will further reduce citizens’ interface with government and, hence, “the associated problems.”

Stressing on the need for upkeep of land records for a comprehensive development of the rural areas, Singh said that the initiative will consider district as a unit, where all activities of the programme will converge.

However, it will be the responsibility of the states and union territories (UTs) to prepare and submit perspective plans indicating time frames for covering all the districts.

The Minister said that access of the records will be in real time enabling the department to provide up to date data, besides guaranteeing significant reduction in fraud, dispute and litigation.

The proposed step is also aimed at helping the department improve planning of management schemes, land use planning like tracking of cultivation status and timely intervention in situations like food crisis, land acquisition and resettlement and rehabilitation of the displaced population.

Besides, it will also help in distribution of ceiling surplus, Bhoodan, or waste-lands to the SC and ST and other beneficiaries, besides bringing in better accountability and transparency in the system and for disaster management, the Minister said.

Stressing on the the need for a proper system of land resource management Singh said that with 9.17 crore ownership holdings in India having five to six parcels per holding, computerisation of existing records and scanning of existing survey maps was a critical component of the development plan.

India has nearly 14 crore land owners and 43 crore records spread over 6.4 lakh villages of 4,882 tehsils and taluks in 1,252 sub-divisions and 602 districts of the country.