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Government
of India initiated a Pilot Project in 1991-92 in District Kangra
for computerisation of Core data contained in the land records
so as to assist development planning and to make the records
more accessible to the people, planners and administrators.
Thereafter a full-fledged Centrally Sponsored Scheme on
computerisation of the land records was formulated in 1994 with
the following objectives:
(a) To facilitate easy maintenance and updating of the changes which
occur in the land database such as changes due to availability
of irrigation, consolidation or on account of legal changes like
transfer of ownership, partition, land acquisition, lease etc.
(b) To provide for comprehensive scrutiny to make the land records
tamper-proof, which indirectly is expected to reduce the menace
of litigation and social conflicts, associated with the
disputes.
(c) To provide the required support for implementation of
development programmes for which data about distribution of land
holdings is vital.
(d) To facilitate detailed planning in the areas of infrastructural
development as well as environmental development.
(e) &
To facilitate preparation of periodical records through a
mechanized process and thereby producing accurate documents for
recording details such as collection of land revenue, cropping
pattern etc.
(f) To facilitate collection/compilation/supply of all information
in reply to variety of standard and ad-hoc queries on land data.
(g) To provide database for Agriculture Census.
(h) To issue of updated copy of Record of Rights (ROR) to land
holders quickly and
at a cheaper rate.
Kangra Pilot
Project
Initially
in a Pilot Project in District Kangra, the Software was
developed in Foxplus under UNIX. The computerisation efforts
involved was confined to production of the Jamabandi (Record of
Rights) in order to give copies. However, several difficulties
were experienced in devising and operating the Software
including the following:
i. The practice of writing Jamabandies varied from location to
location as a result of which Software development became
complicated.
ii. The process of updating Jamabandies through mutations was not
properly incorporated into the Software.
iii. Various other revenue records such as Shajra Nasb and Khasra
Girdawari were left out of the computerisation process.
iv. Since the objective was only to produce Jamabandies, no effort
was made to develop a query system on agricultural and land
records statistics, to meet the requirements of the Scheme.
The
implementation of the Software in District Kangra between 1994
and 1996 revealed many practical problems in entering data with
the accuracy required to maintain computerized records. The
major problem was that the manually maintained records had
numerous errors of a clerical, arithmetical and logical nature
that had to be corrected before it could be accepted into the
database. The correction process took enormous time because of
the legal difficulties in determining the correct entry in many
cases. The procedures required to be followed were also lengthy.
The approach taken in Kangra as a result was to allow free data
entry (with minimal validation), which compounded the problem
because now the purpose of producing error free records from the
computer was defeated.
After
in depth review and with the assistance of another Pilot Project
in District Sirmaur, a fresh effort was launched to develop a
more comprehensive land records computerisation system.
Technically the improvement started with development of the
Software in Oracle 7.0 under UNIX instead of Foxplus under UNIX,
because Oracle was more powerful Software and also improved the
security of the data so essential to land records. The Software
was made more comprehensive by including all the main land
records. Separate Software modules were envisaged for:
i. Shajra Nasb,
ii. Jamabandi and associated statements,
iii. Mutations,
iv. Khasra Girdawari, and
v. Agricultural statistics.
vi. Kisan Pass Books etc.
The
Software uses data entered in one module to produce reports in
all the relevant modules thus saving much time and effort. The
Software also supports extensive queries and produces reports
required for planning, to answer Assembly Questions, to give
periodical reports required under the Land Records Manual etc.
Window Based
Software
Due
to change in technology as well as its implementation in Tehsils,
the software renamed as ‘HimBhoomi’ has been converted into
the windows environment which is very robust and user friendly
software operated by Patwaries(Matriculate) in the Tehsils
themselves.
1. The computerization of Genealogical/Pedigree Table (Family Tree)
is unique feature of this software and is not available in any
other Land Records application developed in India. It allows
entry of ‘n’ generations of a family resulting in data of
500 years or even more as a family tree.
2. On the basis of Genealogical Table (Shajra Nasb),
rationalization of large number of castes and sub-castes can be
done.
3. It replicates the existing manual system with systemic
improvements and process reengineering, thereby enabling its
faster replication and better acceptability by the revenue
staff.
4. HimBhoomi makes no distinction between rural and urban area land
records whereas in other states only focus is primarily on rural
area.
5. A Unique code is assigned to each individual appearing in any
capacity in land records thereby enabling anyone to know the
extent of land possessed, which could be a basis for many
e-governance applications. In addition to this, numerous
inferences can be derived from analytical studies to be carried
out on the basis of this Unique Code. For instance, person
claiming to be a small farmer (but actually having scattered
land at numerous locations) can be easily identified. Similarly,
extent of fragmentation of land and its impact on yield over the
decades can be quantified. Moreover, a person enjoying different
statuses illegally (e.g. a tenant and landowner at the same
time) can be identified.
6. This software facilitates mutation entry and generation of Nakal
and Jamabandi. Mutations get assimilated in to the database (and
not merely as a text entry). Thus, theoretically speaking, a new
Jamabandi can be generated instantaneously and automatically
7. Records of Rights which are normally updated after every five
years in manual system is now up to date with each transaction.
8. Automatic generation of new Jamabandi/RoRs takes place after
incorporating changes from:
a.
Mutation
b.
Government Orders / Notifications
c.
Fard Badr / Errata
d.
Possession Changes from Harvest Inspections
9. For any piece of land, the complete history of various
mutations/transactions taken place is easily available.
10.
This
software includes Land Reforms (e.g. limitation on transfer of
land on which
a tenancy exists) detail. This is a unique feature
that has not been attempted in
any similar software in the
country.
11.
It has
Customary Rights (called Wazib-ul-Arj in Himachal Pradesh) &
Forestry
(TD) Rights (Naksha Bartandari) details that are often
requisitioned by various
Courts of Law. This aspect too has not
been incorporated in similar exercises
elsewhere in India.
12.
This
software creates a complete MIS as it encompasses Minor
Irrigation
Census, Agriculture Census details there by helping
the Department in smooth
conduct of irrigation & agriculture
census which are conducted after every five
years. This may lead
to substantial saving of effort and resources as much of the
information related to it can be extracted from HimBhoomi
databases.
13.
Revenue
village code in this software is same as the census village
code.
Hence,all the data can be correlated with the Land
Records database to carry
out various even micro level studies
down to the individual level.
14. The process
of writing the Records of Rights and associated
documents/reports
used to take minimum 3-4 months for
preparation has now been reduced to
maximum of 7 days thereby
freeing the village level revenue officials to devote
his/her
time in other important activities.
15. The public
can easily obtain RoR any time from the centers established for
this
purpose at nominal cost without any hassles.
16. With
computerization, the record is uniform, neat and standardized.
17.
Extensive
codification like locational parameters based on census
codification,land types, caste/sub-caste types, cultivator
types, 9-fold land
classification and general remarks etc. are
the hallmark of the HimBhoomi
software. The pattern of 9-fold
land classification has been adopted by the
Ministry of Rural
Development, Government of India for uniform implementation
in
similar exercises in India.
Future Benefits
The
introduction of ICT have played a significant role by not only
standardizing the
Land
records documents, procedures and implementation of various acts
& policies but has also made life of people easy by making
available legible records of rights (ROR) in time without any
hassle and they need not chase the Patwari for copy of ROR. The
computerisation has been adopted overwhelmingly both by
department as well as the public. Patwari has more time to serve
public and perform multiple official duties and at the same
time, the public has been put into convenient position as one
can obtain RoR from Tehsil/Sub-Tehsil centre on any working day
by filling a simple application form. Instances have come to
notice where for taking copy of ROR, one had to wait 2-3 months
where as now it is available in just 10 minutes.
Following
benefits are expected from the huge databases generated due to
land records computerisation in Himachal Pradesh:
1. The meaningful MIS being generated from HimBhoomi Database can
be used for planning poverty alleviation programs, supplying
agricultural inputs to small farmer's etc.
2. Banks and other financial institutions can be provided with
access to the
database for processing requests for crop loans.
3. Courts can access the database for settlement of land disputes
between parties.
4. The system can also be effectively used to better administer the
Land Reforms
Act, such as enforcing ceiling on land holdings
etc.
5. The unique code assigned to each individual (in whichever
capacity) can help &
form the basis of many e-governance
applications which mainly focus on
citizen.Few such areas which
can benefit are citizen identity card preparation,
voter list preparation and updation, ration card preparation and continuous
updation,conduct of next human census.
6. The database generated will also be processed for the issuance
of various types
of certificates like caste, income, backward
class, IRDP, Bonafide etc.
7. In knowing the pieces of lands /plots of particular size at
various locations for
the setting-up industry and other
business.
(i) The process starts by taking-up the data entry from
Misal-Hakiyat (Jamabandi prepared during Settlement Operations)
or the last Jamabandi written for the village. The data entry is
started by first entering the Shajra-Nasb. That is, each
individual appearing in the Jamabandi is indexed and assigned a
unique Code, and then the related Jamabandi details are entered
against this Index.
(ii) After the initial data entry is completed, a printout of the
existing Jamabandi, including its Shajra Nasb and other reports,
is generated and given to the concerned Patwari for cross
checking and reporting errors, if any. The Patwari and then the
Kanungo concerned ensure that the existing Jamabandi is
generated 100% correct, by getting the reported data entry
errors corrected. They issue then a certificate also to this
effect.
(iii) Once the existing Jamabandi is generated 100% correct, data
entry from the Mutation Register for the village is started.
After the Mutation Data entry is completed, printout of the
Intermediate Next Jamabandi & Shajra Nasb is generated and
given to the concerned Patwari for checking and reporting error,
if any. After correcting the reported errors, if any, Final Next
Jamabandi & Shajra-Nasb along with all the related reports
is printed and given to the concerned Patwari for record.
(iv) Upon field verification of Jamabandi, the data is ported to
Tehsil for onlineentry of mutations and issue of copy/Nakal of
Record of Rights (ROR).
The
whole process if goes smoothly then reduces the job of
generating an average Jamabandi and associated reports to a
period of less than 7 days at the maximum which is very short
when compared to the time of 3-4 months devoted in the
preparation of the record manually.
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