Integration of satellite survey techniques with land record data and web-based service delivery systems on a GIS platform - A pilot project
Land Record Data Entry
This work is already being done in the State under the Land Record Computerization programme of the GOI. The work is being done by the NIC and has been excruciatingly slow due to a variety of reasons. This work is now being done on a war-footing in the State of Rajasthan. The manner in which this work has been done till now leaves a lot to be desired. The software codes have been devised on the basis of Jamabandi instead of on the basis of survey numbers, which will make it extremely difficult for web-based GIS integration. Therefore, this is a task which NIC needs to undertake urgently. Proceeding on the basis of existing codes would mean that we may not be able to utilize it for any kind of worthwhile GIS interface.also, the codes have not been standardized and have all ben customized districtwise. This also makes it difficult to run astate-wide GIS based system . We would like to be in a view-free, pay for signed record regime. In order to progress to this regime, it is necessary that anyone going to a first-level GIS map on the homepage of the Land Record Portal of the State should be able to further levels, select the area he wants to see and all the attached record should be available to him. This can only be possible only when the data is attached to the survey nos. first . In fact, this is also time-tested methodology of preparing the basic land records. It is the Misal Bandobast from which the Jmabandi is generated and based on the Misal, it is also possible to generate every kind of other Record. Jamabandi, or the Record of Rights is just one of these records. However, the way software codes have been done in Rajasthan, to search a geographic entity, the string has to run all through the village records to locate a particular geographic entity. You can well appreciate what will happen when this kind of unwieldy search mechanism goes on the net. IF you mark out on areas on the map, God alone can tell how much time it will take for the search to be completed and the result to be obtained on your screen. If we arte waiting for Broadband to solve this problem, then God help us because the villages will continue to depend on the lesser connectivity for a long time to come and it is the common village folk who is the subject matter of this debate.
Even the Land classifications have been done on the basis of District-wise preferences , making it quite impossible to design a State-based GIS platform. The Revenue Board in Rajasthan has taken an important initiative and appointed a task force to sort out this problem which otherwise promises to go against the big picture.
Service Delivery System
The most important and crucial part of this whole structure is the service delivery about which it is now possible to think. The World Wide Web in its present level of development makes it possible to take all the record on the GIS platform along with the attached data . It is so structured that anyone and everyone can interact on the website in a query-based structuring. All applications and requests for mutations are accepted online . It is also provided that all mutations are opened automatically through links from Registration and Succession System Softwares. The access is provided all around the State through kiosks which are self financed and pay a certain fee to the State for the right to provide the authenticated records. As said earlier, “View free, pay for the signed record” includes free downloading of records. It is for the legal document that the person will have to pay a charge which would be much less than the informal charge that he has to pay to the Patwari today.
Conclusion
The need of the hour is to get the public to participate in any model we propose because it is the public participation which makes a success of any experiment or programme. We estimate that a State-wide implementation of this model would get the involvement of at least 80% of the local community. Because of its very design and concept, this project would ultimately dovetail all the developmental programmes with this portal and would become the default portal on Rajasthan. Such a portal has the potential of getting the focus of some 1 crore public if we take into consideration that the farmer and his school going children can be the possible targets of this portal. For all the market expansion that has to take place in the rural markets, this would the unchallenged entry point and this is what makes the whole project exciting for the private parties. After all, a captive eyeball figure of anything upto 10 million pageviews a month to an information starved public which is slowly getting integrated with the mainstream market forces is a factor that is the most appealing part of this project.
On the Internet valuation models, 10 million pageviews of a market would mean a valuation of 200 to 300 crores art the International levels at the present . This is after taking into account the beating that the dotcom valuations have taken on NASDAQ and other international bourses. However, we still do not know what will happen after the advent of broadband and the convergence economy. A very safe assumptiion that is being made is that as soon as the Internet graduates to the TV, there would be an overnight 8 fold jump in the eyeball figures . Remember, acccording to the figures released by NASSCOM, the Internet connections are in the region of 2 million and the Internet using public at around 5 million. In contrast, the TV viewing public in the country is estimated at 125 million. This is the possibility which is less than two years old and anyone who can take advantage of the potential of this project by investing at the right time would reap a goldmine. Of course, we are as yet on a Pilot project which is to be funded exclusively by the GOI, but there is always the possibility of our being able to look at proposals for trying out alternative areas with alternative technologies. So here is the clarion all to all comers. Come join hands with the Govt. of Rajasthan in exploring the frontiers of future.