In the 1999-2000 budget the provision under the scheme is Rs. 33.00 crore of which funds to the tune of Rs. 25.69 crore have already been released to the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Manipur, Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Punjab, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Goa, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry upto November 30, 1999 for undertaking pilot project on digitisation of cadastral survey maps, operationalisation of the scheme in 407 new tehsils and additional funds for on-going projects. The entire allocated funds under the CLR scheme will be utilised during the current financial year. So far only five projects, viz. Sonitpur in Assam, Gulbarga in Karnataka, Morena in Madhya Pradesh, Rewari in Haryana and Burdwan in West Bengal have been completed where the computerised Records of Rights (ROR) are being issued to the land owners. In about 100 districts, data entry and data validation work is nearing completion. The progress of implementation of the scheme is periodically reviewed at the level of Joint Secretary as well as through annual conferences of revenue Secretaries and revenue Ministers of the states/UTs. The officers of the Ministry also visit various states to assess the progress of the scheme and to have first-hand information regarding snags and bottlenecks in the implementation of the scheme.
During 1997-98, a decision for operationalisation of the scheme at the tehsil/taluk level was taken for facilitating delivery of computerised land records to users and the public at large. Under this programme, funds are released to state governments for purchase of hardware, software and other peripherals and upto November 30, 1999, 1400 tehsils/taluks have been covered under the programme. Pilot projects for digitisation of cadastral survey maps have been sanctioned in some states viz. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry.
Evaluation and Monitoring of "CLR"
Since the feedback from the states regarding implementation of the scheme has not been forthcoming and progress of utilisation has also been very low, it was decided in 1998 to conduct comprehensive evaluation studies in eight districts of different states viz., Andhra Pradesh (Rangareddy), Madhya Pradesh (Hoshangabad), Maharashtra (Amravati), Karnataka (Mysore), Orissa (Mayurbhanj), Rajasthan (Jaipur), Uttar Pradesh (Aligarh) and West Bengal (Howrah). The objectives of the study were:
- Detailed study of site/hardware/software of the Land Records Unit (LRU) at the district level.
- Detailed analysis of data entry operations in terms of time- bound progress.
- Detailed analysis of monitoring various aspects of CLR.
- Detailed analysis of output generation and delivery systems.
- Detailed analysis of impact of computerisation of land records.
- Specific / concrete recommendations.
- Detailed analysis of proposals for digitisation of cadastral survey maps.
Recently, it was decided to go in for "Campaign Mode" for data entry on specified dates of each quarter in various states. Accordingly, data-entry schedule for various states was chalked out and intimated to them for necessary action. It has also been decided to review and monitor the progress of the scheme through video conferencing interaction at the highest level. The last video conference with the state governments was held in November 1999.
There are many bottlenecks in the implementation of the scheme by the state govenments. Some of the bottlenecks and the remedial measures are: delay in transfer of funds to implementing authority by the state governments, delay in construction of room with A.C. etc. For installation of computers and other equipments, delay in development of appropriate software as per the requirement of the state government, delay in supply and installation of the hardware by the NIC, lack of adequate training to revenue officials to handle the computers and non-availability of good vendors for taking up the job of data-entry work. The ways and means for making the scheme more effective are – to gear up the monitoring mechanism for periodic review of the implementation of the scheme by the state-level implementing authorities and organisation of regular training programmes for the revenue staff and the evaluation of the scheme by entrusting the studies to reputed research organisations.
Future Vision
Not too much thought had been put into defining in detail the quantified deliverable/outputs from the CLR scheme. For the last 10 years, data entry at various levels has been going on at a languid pace with no deliverables visualised or defined except the ROR, which also was not available to landowners even after a decade of pumping in funds and time. It has taken so long that the platform (FOXPRO/Clipper at most places) has died out without any tangible returns.
To encompass the computerisation of land records in its entirety instead of just trying to deliver the text database, three parallel activities need to be done:
- Digitisation of the cadastral maps.
- Transfer of existing database of parcel information into ORACLE or some other such appropriate RDBMS and
defining which year’s data is required to be kept while the rest of it may be either erased or left on CDs/floppies in
DBFs for a certain defined period of time.
- Building up of cadastral maps (in areas where these are not available) by, either –
- Resurveying with GPS so that digital maps with geo-
coordinates are produced, or
- Converting the data from FMB (Field Measurement
Books) into maps, if a survey has already been done.
The detailed process for the aforesaid three activities should be clearly defined so that the entire country gets on to the same platform and every plot map fits together like a jigsaw. The first layer of maps should be done on a simple and easy-to-use platform for which a manpower of "mappers" can be built-up/trained quickly all over the country. Subsequent phases of LIS can be built up on the output of the first phase where digitisation of existing maps and survey data can be completed with the help of external agencies/vendors. This would comprise core cadastral data linked with spatial database, which has been built up by data entry over the past 10 years and is now in the process of being converted to ORACLE at many places. A good example of a standard platform is DXF File Format, which works well with most of GIS softwares like ARC/INFO, MAPINFO, AUTOMAP, GEOOUTLOOK etc. The platform for subsequent phases may be finalised later. These phases shall comprise switching over to a "LIS" and a Management Information System. A basic Geographical Information System has to be built up from cadastral maps and used along with parcel database to form Land Information System which shall meet the needs of landowners, district administrators, state-level departments for land administration, and finally the Central government. Initially the accuracy of this GIS/LIS will not be 100% but Patwaris and Mappers at the village level, along with active participation of land owners, can work back towards that from the initial base. This can be a time-bound programme.
The requirements from GIS system, if clearly defined, will give the state governments a defined direction to move. The GIS system will comprise digital cadastral maps linked with parcel information of landowners, which could be in ORACLE or some other appropriate RDBMS. The LIS system would take off from GIS and be a "Query and Modify Software" working on an extensive network built initially across each state from the districts and subsequently tied up at the office of the Commissioner Land Records and/or Settlement Commissioner/Director Land Records at the state level. This can be easily done by NIC as they have done in the case of the Department of Rural Development’s Schemes in Kerala where they have connected 152 blocks in 14 districts. The deliverables and the time frame for each of the above systems can be defined so as to enable the entire country to move along on the same line and to minimise time and expense in the process.