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Integration of satellite survey techniques with land record data and web-based service delivery systems on a GIS platform - A pilot project
Sanjay Dixit
IAS, Special Secretary Revenue, Room No. 237,
Secretariat
Bhagwan Das Marg, Jaipur
Telephone: 0141-383374 (O), 700660 (R)
sdixit@raj.nic.in , sanjaydixitias@hd1.vsnl.net.in
History of Land Surveys
Land surveys and Land records as we understand them are around 450 years old in India. In North India, it was Shershah Suri who first gave a shape to methodical settlement of rents based on a complete survey of lands. However, it was left to Akbar and his able minister Todarmal to complete this task and bring in the Zareeb based surveys which are still holding their own almost all over the North India.Circa 1575 A.D., almost the entire tract presently known as Uttar Pradesh and Haryana had been brought under Settlement and this process was extended to other areas from time to time. The British continued to operate the same system and all the Land records which we see in U.P. today are based on this sytem . This same system was adopted by most of the native states so that Rajasthan had the same system in vogue throughout most of the State. Of course, there were local variations which have continued till date. For instance, the length of Zareeb in the entire Eastern part of Rajasthan continues to be 132 feet whereas throughout most of the Western part, it has remained at 165 feet. Of course, there are cases like the Jaisalmer state where there was no system of survey and settlement at all and everything was totally ad-hoc. This problem is now being taken care of by reducing all the measurements into the Metric system, but the usage still remains wedded to the traditional measurements of Bighas and Biswas.
Difficulties Encountered in Surveys and Settlement
Over the years, the manual survey technique has suffered both in quality as well as speed of execution. Moreover, with the increasing desensitization of the survey staff, it has become more a tool for exploitation of the farmers than the real surveys which had become virtually the bulwark of both the Mughal as well the British Administration. The element of expertise, efficiency and sincerity slowly vanished and gave way to a situation where declaration of settlement meant difficulties all-round. It has degenerated to an extent that it became one of the most unpleasant duties of the State to declare Settlement in an area. The stories go that the surest way for an incumbent Govt. to lose an election in any area is to start Settlement operations in that Area. Settlement became synonymous with unsettling of complete communities in some areas where unscrupulous elements virtually wreaked havoc in the name of doing fresh Surveys. When the Governments woke up to this, they predictably found a solution which meant that the jamabandis with all their deficiencies became sacrosanct and it became impossible to make any changes in the Survey based on the ground situation .It is in this context that the model proposed here becomes all the more relevant.
Last 50 Years
The experience of the last 50 years has not been very edifying. The field staff has become very insensitive and lax. On the other hand, the Survey skills have become more and more scarce. Of course, the maintenance of the Land Record is done in the same time-tested manner which was done in the age of Todarmal. While it was possible to keep all this going with the sheer weight of the State behind this activity as it was the mainstay of the State Revenues, the gradual erosion in the importance of Land Revenue as the main source of the State finances has also meant that the focus on speedy settlement has blurred.
The manifestations are seen in the form of extreme exploitative nature that the Settlement process had acquired over the years leading to a decision by the Govt. of Rajasthan to do away with the Department of Settlement altogether and transforming into a much thinner Deptt. Of Land Records which puts its modern function in its true perspective.
The maintenance wing under the Collector has also lost skill in mutations in the maps. The Survey skill among the Patwaris seems to have disappeared completely. The result is that changes in the Land Record position are not reflected in the maps at all. This has resulted in the maps losing their relevance over a period of time. As the Survey and Settlement process has been bogged down with huge delays, so much so that it is not uncommon to find tehsils where the process has not been carried out for 50-60 years. It is equally common to find tehsils where Settlement process has been going on for more than 10 years. A very interesting case in point came to my attention recently when I found that even the first Zareeb had not been cast in a particular tehsil even though the notification for Survey and Settlement ha been in force for 6 years. It is these kind of instances which are becoming only too common over the years which has led us to think of this project where we combine technology with economy and speed for getting accurate surveys; translate them into credible Land Records and then put this all together in a web- based Service Delivery System which takes it down to the village level through self financing backbones with kiosks at the front- end to disseminate all the information including properly digital-signature authenticated Land Records available for a fee. View for free, Pay for authenticated record would be the motto of this exercise. A financing model for this is already in the advanced stages of development.
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