Information Technology

for Maintaining Land Records in India:

An Operations Perspective
S N Singh* and O P Dubey**

Recent developments in Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

have introduced a plethora of opportunities for development in every conceivable
area. A weak land record system has been viewed as a systematic weakness.
As a result, the Government of India started the centrally sponsored scheme
of Computerization of Land Records (CoLR). The CoLR scheme involved three
agencies: the National Informatics Centre (NIC); the Ministry of Rural
Development (MoRD); and the state government. NIC is responsible for
upgrading the district centers with latest hardware, software, terminals and
printers to expedite the work of data entry. The progress across the country
has been highly skewed. Some of the states have made good progress, while
others have lagged behind. As a result of this, overall human resources and
infrastructure requirement for land management has reduced.

Introduction
Land records are of great importance to contemporary socioeconomic imperatives, and
their revision and updation are necessary for capturing the changes in rural social
dynamics. Use of computers in rural development in India came through research on
the utility computer during 1975-1980 by Patel (1979). A general awareness of the
utility of computer was created in the bureaucracy through seminars and training
programs (Computer Society of India (CSI), 1981, Informatics, An International
Symposium on Informatics for Development). By 1988, about 15 districts in India had
started using personal computers for producing integrated rural development monthly
reports (Patel, 1986; Bhatnagar, 1987; and Bhatnagar and Patel 1988).
The Government of India, under the leadership of Rajiv Gandhi, decided to increase
the pace of IT use at the district level in 1985. The National Informatics Centre (NIC)
a central government department was chosen to implement a national program called

* Associate Professor, Department of Information Management, Xavier Institute of Social Service,

Ranchi, Jharkhand, India. E-mail: snsingh@xiss.ac.in
** Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Mathematics, Bengal College of Engineering and
Technology, Durgapur, West Bengal, India. E-mail: omprakashdubeymaths@gmail.com

2012 IUP. All Rights Reserved. The IUP Journal of Operations Management, Vol. XI, No. 1, 2012
50
District Information System of National Informatics Centre (DISNIC) to computerize
all district offices, for which free hardware and software were offered. Each district
headquarter was connected to a state computer through a local dish antenna and a
satellite communication network by 1990 (Bedi et al., 2001; Dhingra and Mishra,
2001; and Vittal 2001). And the state computer in turn was connected to a computer in
New Delhi. This network is called NICNET. NIC trained 2,000 technical staff to undertake
the new challenge of computerization. Software application was developed centrally
for about 15 standardized applications for each district. A memorandum of
understanding was signed by NIC with each state government, under which state-
level cells manned by NIC staff provided support to district level computerization.

In a separate program called Computerized Rural Information System Project

(CRISP), the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) and NIC collaborated to develop
software for planning and monitoring of Integrated Rural Development Policy (IRDP)
in 1987. A PC/AT was provided to each District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) to
run the software. The focus was on developing database, modeling techniques for
planning at the district level and providing relevant information for central planning.
The purpose of this paper is to understand Computerization of Land Records (CoLR)
as an operations process toward national development. The process of CoLR enables
detailed mapping of areas and land under different usage patterns, enables an analysis
of mapping of nature of barren land, ownership patterns, etc. The benefits are manifold,
both for the individual and the state. For the individual, a computerized system helps
in tracking land ownerships much quicker, resolving ambiguity regarding land
ownerships, doing a ownership checking, etc. From the states point of view, this
helps in tracking down whether land ownership is being fragmented to evade the
maximum land ceiling, whether or how an individual is creepingly increasing
ownership of land and whether such ownership is in clusters. The state can also,
through mapping of arid, non-productive lands, prepare a land bank, from where
industries can be allotted land for their usage.

With a view to understanding CoLR in India, the present paper is divided into
three parts: CoLR in the states; digitization of cadastral maps; and Land Management
Information Systems (LMIS).

Computerization of Land Records

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as an enabler has broken all bounds
of cost, distance and time. The fusion of computing and communications, especially
through the Internet, has reduced the world indeed into a global village creating new
actors and new environments (Bhatnagar and Schware, 2000; Roy, 2001; Haibullah
and Ahuja, 2005; and Vedakumari, 2005). ICT applications are broadly categorized
into the following aspects specific to rural development:

Information Technology for Maintaining Land Records in India: 51

An Operations Perspective
 Systems for decision support to administration, including panchayats;
Systems for improving delivery of services to citizens; and
Systems for empowering citizens to access information and enable networking
and sharing.
The Government of India started the centrally sponsored scheme of CoLR in
1988-1989 with the main objectives of: (a) creating a database of basic records;
(b) facilitating the issue of copies of records; (c) reducing workload by elimination of
drudgery of paper work; (d) minimizing the possibilities of manipulation of land records;
and (e) creating an LMIS.
The CoLR scheme involved three agencies: the NIC, the MoRD and the state
governments. NIC conducted the system study by visiting 17 states and prepared the
system requirement specifications and flow. The design was standardized and
implemented in all the states with local variations. Software was made for generation
of updated Right of Record (RoR) as mutation updation, query support systems for
Decision Support System (DSS) at district and block level, security mechanism, menu-
driven backup, recovery procedure and report generation. The main objectives of the
CoLR are:
To provide computerized copies of ownership, crop details and updation of
RoRs to landowners on demand;
To provide legal sanctity to computer-generated certificates of land records
after authentication by authorized officials;
To ensure accuracy, transparency and speedy dispute resolution;
To provide fast and efficient retrieval of information for decision making;
To realize low costs and easily reproducible basic land records data through
reliable and durable preservation of old records;
Implementation of a comprehensive land information system for better land-
based planning and utilization of land resources; and
To focus on citizen-centric service related to land and revenue information
under the Right to Information Act.
Next, we present scenarios of computerization across some states in India.

Computerization of Land Records in Karnataka

CoLR in Karnataka was started in 1991 when the pilot project was initiated in Gulberga
through a centrally sponsored scheme of CoLR of Government of India. The
breakthrough came when the state government mandated that the project Bhoomi
CoLR would have to be undertaken and finished in all subdistricts by March 2002.
It was also decided to fully support the development of a citizen-centric land

52 The IUP Journal of Operations Management, Vol. XI, No. 1, 2012

records system. The Karnataka governments Department of Revenue planned to set
up computerized land records kiosks (Bhoomi centers) across 177 Taluka (block) offices.
These kiosks were to provide farmers with the records of Rights, Tenancy and Cultivation
(RTC)a document needed for obtaining bank loans, giving proof of ownership, etc.
The Bhoomi project was accepted to speed up delivery of RTC without delays,
harassment, or bribery.

The manual records were withdrawn from the entire state in a phased manner.
A printout of the computerized records was individually signed by village accountants,
revenue inspectors, Shirasthedar, Tehshildar, assistant commissioners, and deputy
commissioners, after comparing with the manual traditional registers to authenticate
the data. They also put their seal with the name and designations along with date of
verification. The manual and computerized sets of records of the starting day now
serve as original records and are kept in safe custody of Taluka (block) office. After the
completion, a notification was issued by the Deputy Commissioner prescribing the use
of only computerized RTC for all legal and other purposes.

Bhoomi is the best software used for CoLR in Karnataka (Sinha, 2000). The authors
observed that there are 13 steps for the conventional registration of land; it involves:

Step 1: Ascertaining the value of the property;

Step 2: Calculating stamp duty, transfer duty, registration fee and other fees payable
at the time of registration;

Step 3: Purchase of stamp paper;

Step 4: Getting the legal document written;

Step 5: Procuring the necessary certificates to be enclosed with the document;

Step 6: Presentation of the documents to the sub-registrar;

Step 7: Scrutiny of the document by the sub-registrar;

Step 8: Valuation of the property by the sub-registrar, calculation of stamp duty, transfer
duty, registration fees and miscellaneous fees;

Step 9: Payment of deficit stamp duty, if any;

Step 10: Admission of execution by the executants before the sub-registrar and two
witnesses;

Step 11: Copying of document into the registrar record book;

Step 12: Posting entries to two indexes (by name and property), accounts and reports;
and

Step 13: Return of the document to the new owner of the land.

Information Technology for Maintaining Land Records in India: 53

An Operations Perspective
 To go through this procedure, the seller has to go to various government offices
and private firms, viz., stamp vendors, document writers, registration agents and they
charge fee much higher than that prescribed.

CoLR in West Bengal

CoLR in West Bengal was started in the financial year 1990-91 when the first pilot project
was initiated in Burdwan through a centrally sponsored scheme of CoLR. By 1996-97, the
scheme of CoLR was sanctioned for all remaining districts in the State of West Bengal.
The Directorate of Land Records in West Bengal computerized 94% of the 367 lakh
land records for 35,077 Mauzas (revenue villages) of 341 blocks.
One-touch screen kiosk was installed at the block level. A farmer will be able to
operate this kiosk himself. The farmer has to feed in the Khatian Number and after
that can view his hired land record. The tough screen kiosk is very easy to operate and
a farmer with even minimum education can operate it.
Bhoomi software in West Bengal provides for printing of land records and, updating
the database in offline module makes it out of sync with current status of land records
and therefore is not of much use. Recently, the state introduced online mutation, which
has also not been adopted by the staff. There have been 10 upgraded versions of
Bhoomi Software, but still the software has glitches due to the poor acceptance of the
government.

CoLR in Punjab
Pilot project was started in Rupnagar district in the year 1991-92. Later, in
1994-95, this scheme was extended to Jalandhar, Bathinda, Kapurthalla and Sangrur.
From 1997-2009, it was further extended to the remaining districts of Punjab. Even
though a long time has elapsed, the process of CoLR has not achieved any remarkable
progress in the state.

CoLR in Haryana
In the year 1990-91, CoLR was taken up as a pilot project. There are two softwares:
Patwari Information System (PATIS) and Haryana Registration Information System
(HARIS) used for CoLR in Haryana.

CoLR in Goa
Goa was declared to be the first state in the country to have completed the
computerization of land record system. The work of integration of text and graphics,
i.e., non-spatial and spatial, is in progress and will be completed soon. CoLR was
started later in the year 1999-2000.

Digitization of Cadastral Maps

Digitization of cadastral maps pilot project is running in 19 states. Various
cadastral survey conferences have deliberated on the projection to be used for

54 The IUP Journal of Operations Management, Vol. XI, No. 1, 2012

cadastral surveys. The 12 th All India Cadastral Survey Conference constituted a
committee headed by the Additional Surveyor General of Survey of India, with some
directors of land records as members, to standardize the framework, projection,
scale, contents, symbols and accuracy in respect of cadastral surveys and mapping.
Unfortunately, nothing has come out of the same.
Mapping is carried out on three-dimensional earths surface (reference surface)
whereas maps are produced on a two-dimensional plane surface. This is done through
map projection. Some distortions in angles, distances, shapes or area take place which
are taken into consideration for choice of a projection system.
Some of the states, for example, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu,
etc., have adopted a projection known as Cassini Projection, which is suitable nearly
for 60-70 km on either side of central meridian. Each district therefore has different
origin thus having a number of coordinate system in one state. It is, therefore, advisable
to adopt Transverse Mercator/UTM or Lambert Conformal Conic Projection.
The lack of standardized practice has led to serious mismatches of maps prepared
in various scales with different attributes and this is a serious barrier to the creation of
a national geo-spatial data infrastructure.

Benefits of Land Record Digitization

Benefits of CoLR system may be seen from Table 1.

Table 1: Time Benefits Through Digitization (Computerization)

Description of Registration Time Taken in Manual Time Taken in

System Computerization
Valuation of properties 1 h 10 min
Sale of stamp paper It may take days 10 min
Document writing 1 h 30 min
Registration 1 to 7 days 1 h
Encumbrance certificate 1 to 5 days 10 min
Certified copies documents 1 to 3 days 10 min

The benefits of CoLR system for the farmers are: (1) Farmers can get all necessary
records whenever they need it without having to wait for weeks after applying to kiosk
operator; (2) These records are free from human arbitration; (3) Updating becomes
easy as farmers records can be updated by applying at the RTC information kiosks and
their request is directly registered in the land records database; (4) The computerized
records have freed farmers from harassment from government officials, touts,
middlemen, village-level leaders, and from bribery, etc.; and (5) Farmers have direct
access to all information about their property; and farmers are able to question and get
all necessary information about their land (Ahuja and Singh, 2006).

Information Technology for Maintaining Land Records in India: 55

An Operations Perspective
Land Management Information System
There is an urgent need for an integrated information system, the Land Management
Information System. LMIS is a powerful tool that can provide an integrated information
system to the computer-based (digitalized) land records and digital cadastral maps.
The LMIS is a digital information system related to two components, that map the
graphical spatial interphase and the spatial record attributes created in a Relational
Database Management Systems (RDBMS). It can possibly give a reprieve to both the
landowners as well as the government institutions, which require information for
planning and implementation.
A national LMIS is one that caters to the need of ensuring uniformity of land
attributes nationwide, as well as helps in preventing disputes over boundaries between
village, panchayat, districts or states. The analysis, study of evolving patterns,
manipulation of resource assets, concept modeling, risk management and a throng of
various activities are all promising scenarios, if the LMIS adjutant to GIS is used as a
National Land Database.
LMIS will reduce overall human resource and infrastructure requirement for land
management. The main advantages of a National Land Information System can be as
following:
It will ensure accuracy of calculation of revenues, forecasting crops and
yields for better management.
It can be used as an efficient disaster assessment and management tool in
case of natural calamities.
A national level LMIS can also help to determine the threshold limit to
which each holding can be fragmented, as is evident from studies that
fragmentation beyond a certain point results in diminished productivity.

Conclusion
This paper explains some operational aspects of computerized land-record
maintenance in India. The process of computerization gives immense benefits for
factors mentioned herein. Future research can delve into operations process mapping
etc. for this activity.

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56 The IUP Journal of Operations Management, Vol. XI, No. 1, 2012

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An Operations Perspective
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