Bhoomi Project

Introduction:
Rural population (which is 80% of total population) in India depends upon agriculture – an
activity based upon Bhoomi or land – the primary asset. The cultivation or ownership right of
farmers on the land depends upon the land records maintained by the Revenue Department. If
there is any mismanagement of this important document, then the farmer will not be able to
know what to do, as he is illiterate and powerless. This has resulted in thinking by the
government at various levels to provide better management of land records with the help of
Information Technology.
In Karnataka, there are 17 million land record documents covering 20 million
farmers. Karnataka has 27 districts with 177 taluks covering around 800 hoblis and 29,000
villages. This land record document has valuable information, which includes ownership,
tenancy, cultivation, irrigation, tree, liabilities, crop, and soil details including the details of
Government lands.

What is Bhoomi
It is a project of online delivery and management of land records in Karnataka. It provides
transparency in land records management with better citizen services and cuts through
bureaucratic interference. Property and land registration in India has always been a much
debated topic. Bhoomi is a software mechanism which is designed to control changes in
land registration in the state. The project was jointly funded by both the Union Government
of India and Karnataka Government. The project was developed and implemented by
National Informatics Centre (NIC) and launched in 2002.
The aim of the project was to eliminate the corruption and poor maintenance of land records
at the block level offices. Bhoomi has digitized land ownership of 6.7 million farmers in the
state. A farmer’s record of Rights Tenancy and Corps (RTC) is being produced as a
computerised document under Bhoomi. The RTC is a type of social ID, which is required by
a farmer to obtain bank loans and settle land disputes.
The main town in each taluka of Karnataka has an ‘e-kiosk’ with two computers, a printer
and a modem. The software stores data of each villager in the taluka – landowner’s name,
history of previous ownership, soil type and other details of the land. A farmer can get access
to either RTC or mutatation record by flling up a form at the ‘e-kiosks’.

Historically Speaking
Prior to Bhoomi, the Government of Karnataka had launched a scheme of
computerization of land records in 1991. The Gulbarga district was the pilot
chosen from among 24 districts, and by 1996 the project was extended to cover
all districts of the state. Though funds were sanctioned for digitizing the land
records data, there was not enough clarity about their validation and subsequent
updations. Due to varying reasons, ranging from apathy to bureaucracy, the
project failed in its objective.
Bhoomi was born out of this failure. In 1999, a new project was
envisaged digitizing of 20 mn odd land records belonging to 6.7 mn landowners in
177 talukas of Karnataka. But implementing this project in 177 locations was a
daunting challenge due to the poor quality of the manually maintained records,
and the task of entering this enormous data. Thats when the National
Informatics Center designed the Bhoomi Software.

The project was implemented at the cost of Rs 20 crore, jointly by the

Government of India and the Karnataka state government, and officially launched
on February 2001.

Previously, farmers were solely dependent on Village Accountant (Village Level functionary
of Revenue Department in Karnataka) to get a copy of the Record of Rights, Tenancy and
Crops (RTC). RTC is a document needed for many tasks such as obtaining bank loans,
selling properties, creating partition deeds etc. There were delays and harassment. The
traditional process for the management and maintenance of the land records document was
completely manual and paper-based. The process was extremely complex leading to
harassment of stakeholders including revenue administration, judiciary, and registration
officials and most importantly, to the citizens. BHOOMI, a land records management system
implemented by Government of Karnataka with National Informatics Centre as technical
partner is a fine example of how e-Governance systems can bring reforms in the area of land
administration. Revenue Department in Karnataka has computerized 200 lakh records of land
ownership of 67 lakh farmers in the state. All the Record of Rights (RoR) documents have
been verified and certified by the revenue authorities before making digital database as it is
the only source of land records. Manual records have been invalidated through amendment to
Karnataka Land Revenue Rules 1964. Any changes to record of rights will happen through
online mutation application (BHOOMI) only. Online mutation application handles all types
of mutation so that no manual intervention in updating land records database is required.

Success didnt Come Easy

The road to success is often littered with obstacles, and that was very true
for project Bhoomi. The biggest challenge to the project, according to Rajeev
Chawla (then secretary, e-Governance, and commissioner of the survey, settlement
and land records department, Government of Karnataka) who spearheaded the
project, When the project was at its inception, village officials were cynical.
They thought it was an impossibility. However, we had the confidence that we
would be able to deliver the goods, allaying a very pessimistic atmosphere.
But the success of the project was so huge that Bhoomi is now declared as the
national model of replication in all states by the Ministry of IT, Government of
India, and an additional fund of Rs 300 mn is being provided for the same. The
number of transactions under Bhoomi have increased manifold, and currently about
14 mn land records are distributed and 1.6 mn mutations are done through the
Bhoomi system every year.
OBJECTIVES
The objectives of the Bhoomi land records digitization project are as below:

1. Improving the quality of service to the citizens: (a) Allowing Objectives of Bhoomi:
transparency in providing the services to citizens

2. Ease of administration: (a) Facilitating easy maintenance; (b) Prompt updation of land
records; (c) Making land records tamper proof

3. Generating meaningful MIS out of the system relating to land records

4. Ensuring self-sustainability of the project: (a) Robust revenue model (b) Public private
partnership

5. Utilise the data for planning and formulating development plans

6. Enable usage of this database by courts, banks, private organizations and internet service
providers (ISPs)

BENEFITS OF BHOOMI PROJECT

* Framers can quickly get their land records from kiosks and are protected from harassment
and extortion.

* Framers can lodge application for mutation to their land records at the mutation kiosks, get
acknowledgment for the same and can monitor the progress using touch screen kiosks.

* Support for development programs, based on valuable land records data like various crops
grown in a village Or a sub district

* Easy maintenance and updation of land record documents

* Accurate and timely preparation of annual records like land revenue etc.,

* Online connectivity to financial institutions would help banks in planning for their farm
credit related activities The above features would help in bringing total transparency in land
records administration with added advantage of security and reliability. TECHNOLOGY
USED

* Online process of land records system has been built using state-of-the-art technology

* It is designed and implemented using client/server architecture under windows NT 4.0

operating system. It uses one of the powerful relational data base management system
(RDBMS), Microsoft SQL server 7.0, as a back end tool to maintain the data.

* MS graph tools have been extensively used for graphical reporting, analysis and
presentation.

* Data report tool of Microsoft is also used for generating various reports and printing

* As Bhoomi software has established the e-governance in Karnataka state, the fundamental
principle of owing the transaction committed by a government’s official is well take care of.
For foolproof security of data, compaq’s fingerprint (biometric) Technology is interfaces with
BHOOMI software. * `ISM soft’ software of C-DAC has been interfaced for local language
(Indian - Kannada) support

Implementation Strategy
 All officials of the Revenue Department, including 9,000 village
officials, had to follow training programmes.
 Private data-entry agencies were employed at district level, often
after training.
 In addition to officers of the National Informatics Centre (NIC), every
district received support from one private consultant.
 Employees of the Revenue Department should feel themselves
owner of the system. To ensure this, and correctness of the
database, detailed guidelines were issued.
 Though data entry was started simultaneously in all districts, the
progress of a few districts was closely monitored so as to arrive at
understanding of implementation issues.
 The manual system of mutation was banned as soon as, following
thorough pilot studies, Bhoomi was introduced in each Taluk.
 User charges were fixed for all the services to ensure that Bhoomi
would be self-reliant.
 The required number of young, educated, committed villages officials
were selected and trained on Bhoomi software; the software was
designed to minimise day-to-day data-entry work by others than
these village officials.
 While training of village officials began immediately, it was decided to
engage the services of data-entry agencies to depute data-entry
operators to do day-to-day data-entry work, to compensate for a lack
of trained village officials. However, these operators are removed
after one year of operations.
 Key requirements include physical, logical and procedural security
measures. Further, the security of e-documents has to be protected
against loss, corruption and access by unauthorised personnel. Care
was taken of all these aspects.
 To ensure Integrity, Authenticity, Non-repudiation, Audit trails and
Privacy, a state-of-the-art bio-logon metrics system from Compaq
was employed which works on the basis of fingerprints.
 To prevent hacking into the system by imitating other users, and also
to ensure non-repudiation, a password-based security system was
replaced by fingerprint authentication.
 To ensure non-repudiation, provision was made for scanning original
mutation orders of revenue and notices served on interested parties.
 User access is managed and monitored by defining user profiles and
user groups, which determines the use of functions and data.
  A system was put in place to achieve routine maintenance and
upgrades to minimise any disruption to the service.
 An action plan and sufficient funds were made available for regular
upgrades and maintenance of a progressive programme of
improvement and development.
 Daily, weekly, monthly and yearly backups stored at other locations
secure the databases in Taluk office. Preventive maintenance, along
with detailed guidelines on responsibilities and sufficient allocation of
funds, prevents lost of valuable information and enables, in the event
of disaster, restoration of services without delay.

FUTURE OF BHOOMI PROJECT

The much-acclaimed Karnataka’s ‘Bhoomi Project’ is to move on to the next step -

computerisation of urban records.

The unique project of Karnataka, considered to be the only one of its kind in the country, has
so far computerised 20 million rural land records in the State, covering seven million farmers
and 35 million beneficiaries with a network of 177 project locations in 27,000 villages.

Except 42 towns and cities, urban areas do not have property records. The municipalities are
maintaining the tax records though they need to be maintained by the SSLR department as
per the KLR Act.

Computerisation of urban property records is expected to bring in the advantages of certainty

in the minds of the owners, increased economic growth due to easy and speedier land
transaction, decreased land disputes, increased municipal taxes as all properties get netted and
tax modeling would be possible, and would result in framework for storing building plans.

The project is proposed to be completed in five years in all towns and cities through the
private-public participation (PPP) model, the government sharing 20 per cent and the partner
agency 80 per cent with a user charge regime. Rs 50 crore would be required from the
Finance Commission.

Making a presentation before the 13th Finance Commission, commissioner for survey and
land records of the government of Karnataka sought another Rs 75 crore from the Finance
Commission for comprehensive handling of records in the Bhoomi project.

Due to transactions over the years in Karnataka, 25 lakh properties have one single sketch but
onerecord with multiple owners leading to boundary disputes. Therefore, there was a need to
break sketches into multiple sketches as to have one owner with one sketch. This project too
was planned on PPP model and would take three years to complete. An amendment to the
law to provide for this concept is also required.
The concept of pre-mutation sketch, would ensure a non-spatial record (RTC), a record in
the form of a survey sketch (Tippan) and a single owner in future. Explaining how the
Bhoomi project had touched the lives of the farmers with computerisation of manual records,
the commissioner said so far 80 million copies had been provided from the Bhoomi kiosks.

Mutation incidence had increased three fold and land litigation was down by around 50 per
cent according to the Revenue officials.

Prior to Bhoomi Project, land records were held manually. This was creating problems of low
visibility and harassment. They were tamper-prone, dated records and led to cumbersome
procedures. Computerisation had brought in transparency, provided easy access, made the
records secured and up-to-date and the process was citizen friendly now.

The Bhoomi had resulted in electronic request for mortgage entries as lending agencies were
linked electronically with the project. Electronic linking of land acquisition officers and off-
loading of records to private sector by providing connectivity to Bhoomi database had been
possible. Under Nemmadi project, 800 rural tele-centres were providing value added services
to the farmers.

BHOOMI is a good example of a project which has all characteristics of a well-designed e-

Governance system.

Technological Sustainability: BHOOMI developed on Visual Basic 6.0 and SQL SERVER
2000 and all the modules required for electronic integration have been developed using dot
net technologies. With a dedicated team and state of art technology , Bhoomi has
demonstrated a sustainability and will continue to do so.The total user fee collected through
issuance of RTCs was Rs.45 crore. This amount not only covered the investments made in
computerisation but left enough surpluses for further development.

Legal Sustainability: Data exchange between the different stake holders happen using
digitally signed XML, except BHOOMI-KAVERI. BHOOMI-KAVERI has been
implemented as for the provisions of the laws like prohibition of transactions on land parcels
with government restrictions, government lands, land proposed in transaction should be free
from encumbrances, mandatory requirement of pre-mutation sketch where survey number is
getting divided etc.

1.1000 private kiosk owners to be set up as Bhoomi franchisees

2. can charge Rs 25 per certificate.

3. provide other government services(dubbed Rural Digital Services)

4. Self-sustaining model with estimated Rs 36000 per annum earnings for kiosk owner.

5. Extending digital connectivity to courts and banks.

6. Franchisees would have to be high- school educated with basic knowledge of computers.

7. Raitha Mithra Kendras, of the Karnataka Agricultural Department, to be given preferential

treatment for franchises

CONCLUSION
The experience of agriculturists with the Bhoomi project in Kodagu district, indicates that the
project has been advantageous to them, especially reduction in time to obtain RTC. The
agriculturists are mostly satisfied with the minimal time and effort that they have to put in to
obtain the required documents now. With the computerisation of land records, the
manipulation of land records has come down, as it has reduced the discretion of village
accountants to issue the records of rights. Computerisation of land records has brought about
transparency and clarity in land records. With transparency of land records and easy
accessibility of land records through web, the purchaser of land is able to get accurate
information and can be sure of his investment. With the computerisation of land records, the
mutation period has come down to30-45 days.

However, this computerisation is not completely flawless. Some of the problems that still
exist, and have been voiced by the beneficiaries of Bhoomi are: wrong entries of name and
acreage in the records, corrections and changes in RTC leads to delay and requires numerous
trips to taluk office, due to complexity of procedure. The field study indicates that Bhoomi
centres are most often plagued by problems of non-availability of employees, dysfunctional
computer systems, disruption of electricity, server problems and non-availability of paper to
print RTC, which causes delay in the issuance of documents. As the crop information are not
updated season wise, it poses a problem for the agriculturist to obtain bank loan. With
computerisation of land records, bribery has shifted from grass root officials to the top
brasses of the organisation, as it was noted by some of the beneficiaries that no work gets
done in land revenue office without paying money.

However Bhoomi has tackled a lot of delays and inefficiencies of the manual record keeping.
Bhoomi has brought about transparency in maintenance and updating of land records. The
program has provided farmers easy access to their land records as it provides printing of RTC
as and when required. It has reduced the discretion of officials as First in First out (FIFO)
strategy has been adopted in disposal of all types of mutation cases in Bhoomi. It won the
National e-governance award in2005. The successful implementation of computerisation of
land records under the software Bhoomi has made the Government of India replicate the
same in other states.
The 'Bhoomi' project was undertaken and developed by the State Government of Karnataka. It
was done so in order to computerize all the records of the land in Karnataka. However, the
Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India had sponsored the project in togetherness
with the State Government of Karnataka.

The project was designed to eliminate the long-standing problem of inefficiency and corruption
in the maintenance of land records at dispersed and poorly supervised and audited block-level
offices known as "taluka" offices in South India and "tehsildar" offices in North India. The
project development and implementation was done by National Informatics Centre.
Many experiments with computerization have failed due to corruption and other factors.because
there was a champion who worked a 15-hour day for over 12 months, devoting 80% of his time
to the project. Minimizing resistance from staff by harnessing political support was an important
contributory factor. Extensive training coupled with a participatory style also helped to diminish
resistance." The project has some interesting features:
 Fully assisted software for printing land records at any time (i.e. whenever the records needed
to be printed) was created.
 Supports online updating of records, certificates for farmers
 Biometrics login system to ensure authentication of users through fingerprints; to avoid
imitation of users and hack of the database system.
 Using the software for generation of reports on soil, land-holding size, types of crops grown
and many more (to make informed policy decision).
Benefits to farmers
 Farmers can get their land records quickly from kiosks; the record acts a proof of land
property or lease and the farmers will not face extortion or any kind of harassment
 Easy access to farm credit
 Easy in case of legal matters
Benefits to administrators
 Simple to maintain and to update land records.
 Quick and easy access to the documents for analysis
 Ease of monitoring government lands.
Benefits for outside agencies
 Financial Institutions (to provide farm credit, they can access information on the financial
status of each farmer as well as general information about their land e.g. size)
 Information available to Private Sectors.
 Digitization of land records was introduced to computerize all land records including
mutations, improve transparency in the land records maintenance system, digitize maps and
survey, update all settlement records and minimizes the scope of land disputes. This would
provide clear titles of land ownership that could be monitored easily by government officials,
facilitate quicker transactions and reduce disputes.
DOCUMENTS UNDER ONLINE LAND RECORDS IN KARNATAKA
The revenue department of Karnataka state developed software called Bhoomi with the
contribution of RTC. The Land (Bhoomi) related to land records management is the country’s
first e-governance project has been successfully implemented for the benefit of the common
man. Under the project, each taluk of the Karnataka provided the land record through the kiosks
which have been set up in complete state. This Bhoomi project has the following main objects:

 Showing documents of land and property on the demand of the public.

 For secure information access making possible fingerprints (biometrics) proof system.
 By using the touch screen kiosks checking the land records documents and mutation
status.
 Providing any type of amendment on the documents on the first-come, first-served bases.
 The online system to record land documents.
The Bhoomi project made to deliver the transparent land management system for comment
peoples. The citizens can avoid going rounds and rounds in the offices to get their property
information through the civil servants and they can bet the better services under this project of
Karnataka state. The official website of bhoomi.karnataka.gov.in has been made through the
technical assistance of the national informatics center (NIC) Bangalore and with the coordination
of the revenue department of state. The online website of Bhoomi Karnataka provides the
computerized land records for more than 20 million owners and 6.7 million farmers. The online
website is working to reduce the problem of the general public getting all types of documents
and mutations.

The citizens can submit their online mutation requests by the online website and without official
person’s help. The general public can get access to the database of all properties in the state. The
citizens can visit the nearest taluk office which has been established in 177 places of Karnataka
state through which they can get the hard copy of their RTC papers by showing their name and
plot number. For this service citizens will have to pay Rs. 15 (fifteen rupees) as the service
charge in the office. In the taluk office one side, the departmental person will work and the
second computer face will be on the side of a person through which he/she can see the process of
transactions. All citizens can check the status of their mutation request through the touch screen
computer at the kiosks centers.

In case any person is not getting the mutation under the 45 days duration of the revenue inspector
is not working well to provide it the citizens can submit the complaint or grievance to the other
senior person and the department will take legal action against him/her. Citizens are able to view
their RTC, mutation extract of property can check the status of their mutation request, along with
the RR5 and RR6.

Implementation Process
The central and state governments have long been aware of the need to reform the land record
system. The beginning of computerisation of land records in Karnataka goes back to 1991 when
the first pilot system was 80 e-Governance: Case Studies initiated under the Ministry of Rural
Development’s Computerisation of Land Records (CLR) project, fully funded by the
Government of India. By 1996, projects for computerisation of land records were sanctioned for
all districts in the state of Karnataka. However, no provision was made to install computers at the
taluk level where the manual records were actually updated. The breakthrough came when the
state government mandated that ‘Bhoomi – Computerisation of Land Records’ would have to be
undertaken and finished in all sub-districts by March 2002. It was also decided to fully support
development of a citizen-centric land records system even if it meant substantial investment by
the state government for those components of the project, which were not being funded by
federal government. This political mandate was backed by full administration efforts at all levels.
The major objectives to be fulfilled by the Bhoomi project were:

• Facilitating easy maintenance and prompt updating of land records.

• Making land records tamper-proof.

• Allowing farmers easy access to their records.

• Collating the information to construct a data base regarding land revenue, cropping pattern,
land use, etc.

• Utilising the data for planning and for formulating development programmes.

• Enabling usage of this data base by courts, banks, private organisations and companies, ISPs.

The Karnataka Government’s Department of Revenue planned to set up computerised land

record kiosks (Bhoomi centres) across 177 taluk offices. These kiosks were to provide farmers
with the Record of Rights, Tenancy and Cultivation (RTC) – a document needed for obtaining
bank loans, giving proof of ownership, etc. The Bhoomi project was expected to speed up
delivery of RTCs, without harassment.

Suggesions:

Currently, citizens have to travel either to Nemmadi Kendra at hobli level or to Bhoomi kiosk at
the taluk office to obtain the RTC/other documents, resulting in additional expenses in terms of
time and money. Therefore, the entire system could be simplified, bringing the village
accountants online. They should be provided with the required computer support to issue
documents like RTC/mutation copy and affix digital signatures. This will result in the reduction
of workload on Bhoomi operators as also queuing at the taluk headquarters, as is the case now.
At present, the Nemmadi Kendras are operated through outsourced agencies and there is no
uniform system of attending to people’s requests. Overcrowding and jumping queues are
common, often leading to arguments. Therefore, a system of window-counters should be
provided at Nemmadi Kendras to safeguard confidential documents from public glare. It will
also help in the systematic processing of work and attending to people’s enquiries without
disruption. Staff allocated to the Bhoomi Kiosk should not be sent on deputation to other
departments and skilled staff should be appointed and further training should be provided to staff
to ensure the quality of service. Village Accountants should not work as Bhoomi operators and
vice versa. Currently, transactions are attended through middlemen or lawyers in all the offices.
This is ascribed primarily to the absence of guidance available in the counters with regard to the
procedures to be followed in each of the transaction. Giving guidance is not possible through the
existing application counters as a large number of people would be waiting for acceptance of
applications in Bhoomi kiosks. This aspect of arranging separate counters for the guidance of the
citizens.
OBJECTIVES

The objectives of the Bhoomi land records digitization project are as

below:
1. Improving the quality of service to the citizens:
(a) Allowing Objectives of Bhoomi:
transparency in providing the services to citizens
2. Ease of administration:
(a) Facilitating easy maintenance; (b) Prompt updation of land
records; (c) Making land records tamper proof
3. Generating meaningful MIS out of the system relating to
land records
4. Ensuring self-sustainability of the project:
(a) Robust revenue model
(b) Public private partnership
5. Utilise the data for planning and formulating development plans
6. Enable usage of this database by courts, banks, private
organizations and internet service providers (ISPs)

BENEFITS OF BHOOMI PROJECT

* Framers can quickly get their land records from kiosks and are
protected from harassment and extortion.
* Framers can lodge application for mutation to their land records at
the mutation kiosks, get acknowledgment for the same and can
monitor the progress using touch screen kiosks.
* Support for development programs, based on valuable land records
data like various crops grown in a village Or a sub district
* Easy maintenance and updation of land record documents
* Accurate and timely preparation of annual records like land revenue
etc.,
* Online connectivity to financial institutions would help banks in
planning for their farm credit related activities
The above features would help in bringing total transparency in land
records administration with added advantage of security and reliability.

TECHNOLOGY USED

* Online process of land records system has been built using

state-of-the-art technology
* It is designed and implemented using client/server architecture under
windows NT 4.0 operating system. It uses one of the powerful
relational data base management system (RDBMS), Microsoft SQL
server 7.0, as a back end tool to maintain the data.
* MS graph tools have been extensively used for graphical reporting,
analysis and presentation.
* Data report tool of Microsoft is also used for generating various
reports and printing
* As Bhoomi software has established the e-governance in Karnataka
state, the fundamental principle of owing the transaction committed by
a government’s official is well take care of. For foolproof security of
data, compaq’s fingerprint (biometric) Technology is interfaces with
BHOOMI software.
* `ISM soft’ software of C-DAC has been interfaced for local language
(Indian - Kannada) support
5. SITUATION IN PROJECT OWNER’s STATE/ DISTRICT

The Original Bhoomi Project: Pre-Integration stage

• Even though BHOOMI had become operational in 2001 in most of the taluks in Karnataka, most
of its interfaces with other stakeholders were manual in nature. For example, when a change of
ownership or transaction takes place, applicant files request for initiating the mandatory process
known as mutation for effecting necessary changes in the ROR.

• Mutation requests after registration (popularly called as ‘J-slips’) in sub registrar’s office were
sent in paper form to Tahsildar for carrying out mutation to bring name of the new purchaser in
record of rights. This process was still manual and time consuming with multiple human touch
points and hassles to farmers.

• Also, in pre-BHOOMI days and till 2011 during BHOOMI implementation, for the notifications
received from different land acquiring bodies, data entry had to be done by Application Kiosk
operator and then BHOOMI back office had to process the mutation. As a result most of the land
acquisitions were not getting updated on record of rights and RoRs were not depicting the
actual ground reality on the paper.

• Non updation of such important data results in huge loss to purchaser as owner of such
acquired lands would have lost all rights on the lands. Not only this, the Government also is
involved in Land Acquisition for various development purposes of canal building, road
development, rehabilitation, village/town extension, culverts, reservoirs, military camps,
railways, industries, etc. Since, the Land records were already computerised in Bhoomi,
Government decided to extend the integration project with the Land Acquiring bodies in the
state.

When analyzed, revenue department observed that the different types of transactions happening in
BHOOMI, more than fifty percent of transactions were pertaining to pledge and release of lands. These
are transactions wherein citizen pledges his land to banks or cooperative institutions for getting farm
credit or released the property after paying back the loan.

• Stakeholders: The stakeholder segment for Land Records System is a huge base starting from
Highest Administrative unit in Government functionary to rural farmers.

• Beneficiaries: The integration of BHOOMI with Kaveri, Bhooswadeena and Banks was the key
step for realization of actual benefits of Land Records Management System. Electronic
Integration of Bhoomi with Kaveri – Citizens, Department of Stamps and Registration and
Revenue Administration Electronic Integration of Bhoomi with Bhooswadeena – Citizens,
Revenue Administration / Land Acquiring bodies and Agencies who have requested land
acquisition
Electronic Integration of Bhoomi with Banks – Citizen, Banks and Revenue Administration

Steps/ action taken at the state/ district level to address the problem:

• Partnerships were forged with many different agencies. Agencies like the NIC and private data
entry agencies played a pivotal role during various phases of implementation. Since the
departmental staff was reluctant to enter data, private data entry agencies were used.

Integration as a key Solution

• The interfaces of Bhoomi project were to be enhanced to bring in online data exchange from
various stakeholder sources like Registration Department, land acquiring bodies, banks and
most importantly deliver seamless services to citizens. As a part of complete end to end
computerization and interdepartmental integration, 3 major innovative steps were taken by the
Government of Karnataka, which includes

a) In 2010 concept of electronic integration of ‘BHOOMI’ and ‘KAVERI’ was conceptualized and
piloted in five taluks. The integration with registration software was a key to get rid of malpractices in
sale deeds. This integration was also going to be helpful for all citizens who had to go to Land records
office post registration with physical papers. Because unless transaction is initiated on BHOOMI with
these cases received in paper, Bhoomi solution had no means to locate the land deals Hence,
Government of Karnataka took this ambitious and innovative step to integrate the Bhoomi System with
Registration Department.

b) In the Land Acquisition cases, it was difficult for solutions to exchange the data between Bhoomi
and Land Acquisition software BHOOSWADEENA. Operator had to manually enter the land acquisition
cases post the acquisition. Also there were no means to command and identify the land acquisitions at
run time. So, Electronic integration of ‘BHOOMI’ with ‘BHOOSWADEENA’ (Land Acquisition software in
Karnataka) commenced in 2011. Project is currently running successfully in all 52 sub division offices of
revenue department.

c) Volume of applications that were being received from the banks and co-operative institutions for
creating liabilities on the land were huge and hence resulted in time delay. Revenue department
therefore decided to integrate BHOOMI and Bank activities electronically. Electronic integration of
‘BHOOMI’ with ‘Banks’ was started in 2012 to bring in banks as an active stakeholder in Land processes.

The significance and context of Bhoomi

The Bhoomi program, to computerize land titles in the state of Karnataka, has been underway since
February 2001. After its launch in five taluks (districts) as a ‘pilot’ program, the Government of
Karnataka (GoK) extended it in two phases to cover all 177 taluks in the state to ensure
mainstreaming within broader land management.
• The program has generated a computerized database of 20 million land records belonging to
6.7 million farmers, besides gathering the entire history of cropping pattern of the last 12
 seasons. In no other province in a poor country are land cadastrals being digitized on such a
scale.
• Framing the program demanded technical expertise, and implementing it required very
committed managerial expertise. Not surprisingly, Bhoomi has won several awards, and was
presented as an example of ‘best practice’ by the World Bank – leading to the program being
showcased nationally and internationally.
The Bhoomi places in a digital format, the RTC and also records the characteristics of the land, the
types of soil, and the crops grown. With eleven columns, spread among nine categories of
information, the RTC is vital for a landowner to access bank loans, to buy seeds and fertilizer, for
issuance of documents like the Small Farmer Certificates, and also for evidence in the court –
although the Bhoomi records have only presumptive value. The RTC also records when land is
subdivided or amalgamated, and such ‘mutations’ 23 as part of land ownership/tenancy and
inheritance. An improvement on the cards is the ‘Bhoomi Plus’ –where the survey or physical
dimension records will also be microfiched and placed online.
• The computerization is based on a LAN system interconnecting a kiosk and a back office
within the taluk office. There is a proposal to connect all taluk offices to centralize the data at
a server in the central treasury. Over time, the original software has been improved by
providing various features to reduce corruption, including:
a) First in - First Out (FIFO)

b) Biometrics; And,

c) Double screen for users to view typed in matter, including touch screens.

• Bhoomi is also distinctive in that is relates to a part of government that is in many ways is the
most public – land issues that affect people in a most fundamental sense.25 As mentioned
earlier in the introduction to this text, the Bhoomi is representative of the view among
mainstream development economists that traditional land management practices impede
economic development and poverty alleviation.26 The assumption is that traditional practices
remain as vestiges of under-development, characterized by the lack of transparency, and
stooped in corrupt ‘patronage politics’ which ‘exploit’ the poor. When programs like
egovernance fail, blame is laid on the doorstep of politics – separating managerial expertise
from that of ‘political will’.
Thus, reorganizing traditional practices to promote efficient land markets is seen as a means of
improving the trade and investment climate. It is also seen to deliver the benefits of globalization by
drawing capital to spur rural markets and agro-business, including those based on new
biotechnologies, to raise productivity and reduce poverty. Thus, it is not surprising that systemizing
land cadastrals via its computerization forms a core initiative for a ‘reforming’ economy and is
actively promoted by organizations like the World Bank. In more specific terms, the rationale for the
program rests on two inter-related developmental objectives – to promote efficiency and
transparency. In the language of mainstream
development economists, Bhoomi’s promotion of ‘efficiency’ is meant to:
a) reduce the time to access land records and the procedures of title related administration; and
b) streamline land administration by homogenizing the multiple forms of recording that
historically existed in Karnataka.28 In terms of ‘transparency’, a major argument relates to the
exploitation of small farmers by the corruption promoted by large farmers and middlemen.
 This is linked to the management of land at the village level where the argument is that local
officials use ambiguous records and ‘manual’ systems of recording to benefit the local elite. 29 Such a
view is also evident in the comments of the principal designer of the Bhoomi, highlighting how the
Bhoomi snatched power away from elected bodies referenced earlier.
• Another reason, perhaps less explicit is that senior bureaucrats found themselves
disconnected from land related management that was dominated by local level officials. 31
This might explain important aspects of the program: to close village level offices and
centralize functions to the taluk level, and make illegal the continuation of old Record of
Rights, Crops and Tenancy (RTC) formats in transactions after 2001. This is also reflected in
the statement of the senior technical officer of the National Informatics centre to ‘kill the old
system..’ referenced earlier.
The Bhoomi program is the third attempt at computerizing land records in Karnataka.
Conceived as a countrywide program by the Government of India (GoI) in 1991, Karnataka was
among the first states to initiate action.32 The support it had is reflected in the national funding for the
program despite the main opposition party, the Congress, being in power at the state level as
referenced earlier. The project cost about Rs. 20 crores, which was financed by the Ministry of Rural
Development of the GOI, with a nearly contribution by the Revenue department, GoK. In the state,
Bhoomi had the active support of the then Chief Minister who inaugurated the first kiosk in Maddur,
his constituency.
This support was critical in pushing the program through the administrative system.33 The
technically challenging program of ‘marrying’ software to complex, and often local systems, of land
management, was driven by the dynamic leadership of senior bureaucrats in the Revenue department
with the technical assistance of the NIC, which in turn has funding support from the World Bank.
• It is unclear,however, if any detailed studies were undertaken on the diverse land
management practices within the five main governance systems, and the economic, social
and political consequences of homogenizing forms of reporting, before launching Bhoomi.35
Irrespective, the Revenue department organized training sessions to launch the program
across the state. The trainees included the sons of the previous Revenue Inspectors (RIs) and
Village Accountants (VAs).
There was an elaborate system of control at various levels of the bureaucracy to ensure compliance,
and the use of technically qualified consultants to act as ‘change agents’ and to operate the software
developed by the NIC at the taluk-level kiosks located within the office of the Thasildar. In the next
section, we take a look at the claims about made about the success about the program, to find serious
problems with each of these. However, it is the broader issue of what such programs mean in the
context of globalising Bangalore is what is of specific interest. Like Ferguson, it is the latter that
seems more important where success or failure set in narrow project terms is relatively less
important.
Bhoomi is a project jointly funded by the Government of India and the
Government of Karnataka to digitize the paper land records and create a software
mechanism to control changes to the land registry in Karnataka. The project was
designed to eliminate the long-standing problem of inefficiency and corruption in
the maintenance of land records at dispersed and poorly supervised and audited
block-level offices known as "taluka" offices in South India and "tehsildar" offices
in North India. The project development and implementation were done by
National Informatics Centre. Many experiments with computerization have failed
due to corruption and other factors.
Implementation of Land record computerization has been difficult in India.
Bhoomi succeeded because there was a champion who worked a 15-hour day for
over 12 months, devoting 80% of his time to the project. Minimizing resistance
from staff by harnessing political support was an important contributory factor.
Extensive training coupled with a participatory style also helped to diminish
resistance."

 OBJECTIVES:

 Improving quality of service to citizens:

 Allowing farmers/ citizens easy access to their records
 Infuse transparency in providing services to citizens
 Ease of administration:
 Facilitating easy management
 Prompt updating of land records
 Making land records tamper proof
 Generating meaningful MIS out of the system relating to land records
 Ensuring self-sustainability of project:
 Public-private partnership

 Integration of Bhoomi with other departments and services:

The Bhoomi project has been used not only for computerization of land
records, but also has been integrated with various other departments and
projects such as the Survey department, Bhooswadeena project (Land
Acquisition Software), Kaveri application (Department of Stamp and
Registration), and integration with the Banks.

 Key Benefits for Farmers:

 They can get their land records quickly from kiosks; the record
acts a proof of land property or lease and the farmers won't face
extortion or any kind of harassment
 Easy access to farm credit
 Easy in case of legal matters

 Key Benefits for Administrators:

 Ease in maintenance & updation of land records
 Quick and easy access to the documents for analysis
 Ease of monitoring government lands

 Key Benefits for Outside agencies:

 Financial Institutions (to provide farm credit, they can access
information on the financial status of each farmer as well as
general information about their land e.g., size)
 Information available to Private Sectors.

 FLAWS:
Although it was being hailed as a remarkable implementation of
technology and a feather in the e-governance crown in India, Bhoomi
has not been able to eliminate land disputes in the state. Earlier, the
village accountants employed by the state government used to keep
maintain the land records and any change that had occurred in ownership
of lands. There were numerous accounts of allegations against the
government officials being a part of corruption and exploitation of the
rural poor, especially in case of ‘mutation’ or change of ownership of
lands.
The main problem regarding the Bhoomi project is that fraudulent land
records have gone online. The government is being criticised for
hurrying through the project without tallying old records with current
data, by which excess land could have been distributed among the
landless and cheated landowners.
Farmers who were being cheated by rural rich landowners as well as by
government officials have complained that old land grabs have been
legitimized by Bhoomi and they do not have any chance of recovering
the land. The other, more basic problem with Bhoomi is that most of
rural farmers are illiterates and cannot avail the services provided by the
project. Many farmers lost their lands due to illegal land grab by wealthy
families who took land documents as collateral for loans and later
usurped the lands. Although the program has made way for transparency
in land records in future, it has been prey to digitizing fraudulent records
in many cases.
The government analysts and policy makers have conceded the fact that
Information Technology cannot address fraud in primary data which is
put online. The flaws inherent in implementing Bhoomi can be a lesson
for the government machineries in case of implementing further e-
governance projects in future.
FUTURE OF BHOOMI PROJECT

The much-acclaimed Karnataka’s ‘Bhoomi Project’ is to move on to

the next step - computerisation of urban records.

The unique project of Karnataka, considered to be the only one of its

kind in the country, has so far computerised 20 million rural land
records in the State, covering seven million farmers and 35 million
beneficiaries with a network of 177 project locations in 27,000
villages.

Except 42 towns and cities, urban areas do not have property records.
The municipalities are maintaining the tax records though they need
to be maintained by the SSLR department as per the KLR Act.

Computerisation of urban property records is expected to bring in the

advantages of certainty in the minds of the owners, increased
economic growth due to easy and speedier land transaction, decreased
land disputes, increased municipal taxes as all properties get netted
and tax modeling would be possible, and would result in framework
for storing building plans.

The project is proposed to be completed in five years in all towns and

cities through the private-public participation (PPP) model, the
government sharing 20 per cent and the partner agency 80 per cent
with a user charge regime. Rs 50 crore would be required from the
Finance Commission.

Making a presentation before the 13th Finance Commission,

commissioner for survey and land records of the government of
Karnataka sought another Rs 75 crore from the Finance Commission
for comprehensive handling of records in the Bhoomi project.

Due to transactions over the years in Karnataka, 25 lakh properties

have one single sketch but one record with multiple owners leading to
boundary disputes. Therefore, there was a need to break sketches into
multiple sketches as to have one owner with one sketch. This project
too was planned on PPP model and would take three years to
complete. An amendment to the law to provide for this concept is also
required.

The concept of pre-mutation sketch, would ensure a non-spatial

record (RTC), a record in the form of a survey sketch (Tippan) and a
single owner in future. Explaining how the Bhoomi project had
touched the lives of the farmers with computerisation of manual
records, the commissioner said so far 80 million copies had been
provided from the Bhoomi kiosks.

Mutation incidence had increased three fold and land litigation was
down by around 50 per cent according to the Revenue officials.

Prior to Bhoomi Project, land records were held manually. This was
creating problems of low visibility and harassment. They were
tamper-prone, dated records and led to cumbersome procedures.
Computerisation had brought in transparency, provided easy access,
made the records secured and up-to-date and the process was citizen
friendly now.

The Bhoomi had resulted in electronic request for mortgage entries as

lending agencies were linked electronically with the project.
Electronic linking of land acquisition officers and off-loading of
records to private sector by providing connectivity to Bhoomi
database had been possible. Under Nemmadi project, 800 rural tele-
centres were providing value added services to the farmers.

BHOOMI is a good example of a project which has all characteristics

of a well-designed e-Governance system.

Technological Sustainability: BHOOMI developed on Visual Basic

6.0 and SQL SERVER 2000 and all the modules required for
electronic integration have been developed using dot net technologies.
With a dedicated team and state of art technology , Bhoomi has
demonstrated a sustainability and will continue to do so. The total
user fee collected through issuance of RTCs was Rs.45 crore. This
amount not only covered the investments made in computerisation but
left enough surpluses for further development.

Legal Sustainability: Data exchange between the different stake

holders happen using digitally signed XML, except BHOOMI-
KAVERI. BHOOMI-KAVERI has been implemented as for the
provisions of the laws like prohibition of transactions on land parcels
with government restrictions, government lands, land proposed in
transaction should be free from encumbrances, mandatory
requirement of pre-mutation sketch where survey number is getting
divided etc.

1.1000 private kiosk owners to be set up as Bhoomi franchisees

2. can charge Rs 25 per certificate.

3. provide other government services(dubbed Rural Digital Services)

4. Self-sustaining model with estimated Rs 36000 per annum earnings

for kiosk owner.

5. Extending digital connectivity to courts and banks.

6. Franchisees would have to be high- school educated with basic

knowledge of computers.

7. Raitha Mithra Kendras, of the Karnataka Agricultural Department,

to be given preferential treatment for franchises

CONCLUSION

The experience of agriculturists with the Bhoomi project in

Karnataka, indicates that the project has been advantageous to them,
especially reduction in time to obtain RTC. The agriculturists are
mostly satisfied with the minimal time and effort that they have to put
in to obtain the required documents now. With the computerisation of
land records, the manipulation of land records has come down, as it
has reduced the discretion of village accountants to issue the records
of rights. Computerisation of land records has brought about
transparency and clarity in land records. With transparency of land
records and easy accessibility of land records through web, the
purchaser of land is able to get accurate information and can be sure
of his investment. With the computerisation of land records, the
mutation period has come down to30-45 days.

However, this computerisation is not completely flawless. Some of

the problems that still exist, and have been voiced by the beneficiaries
of Bhoomi are: wrong entries of name and acreage in the records,
corrections and changes in RTC leads to delay and requires numerous
trips to taluk office, due to complexity of procedure. The field study
indicates that Bhoomi centres are most often plagued by problems of
non-availability of employees, dysfunctional computer systems,
disruption of electricity, server problems and non-availability of paper
to print RTC, which causes delay in the issuance of documents. As
the crop information are not updated season wise, it poses a problem
for the agriculturist to obtain bank loan. With computerisation of land
records, bribery has shifted from grass root officials to the top brasses
of the organisation, as it was noted by some of the beneficiaries that
no work gets done in land revenue office without paying money.

However Bhoomi has tackled a lot of delays and inefficiencies of the

manual record keeping. Bhoomi has brought about transparency in
maintenance and updating of land records. The program has provided
farmers easy access to their land records as it provides printing of
RTC as and when required. It has reduced the discretion of officials as
First in First out (FIFO) strategy has been adopted in disposal of all
types of mutation cases in Bhoomi. It won the National e-governance
award in2005. The successful implementation of computerisation of
land records under the software Bhoomi has made the Government of
India replicate the same in other states.