National Land Information System policy issues

National Land Information System policy issues

Col. P. K. Rajkhowa. (Retd)
Manager (Business Development)
Ramtech Corporation Ltd.
D-4, Okhla Industrial Area,
Phase - I, New Delhi 110020
Tele: 681584/41/42 Extn 41
Email: p_rajkhowa@yahoo.com

Introduction
Government of India started the centrally sponsored scheme of computerisation of land records (CLR) in 1988-89. The scheme was 100% funded by the Centre. This was a result of emphasis laid by our Planning Commission in proper maintenance of land records as the basis of good administration. The need was also reiterated by the Second Planning Commission and the Third. The Sixth Plan even envisaged the completion and updation of land records during 1980 to 1985. To quote the Sixth Plan document, "Systematic programmes would be taken up for compilation and updating of land records for completion within a period of five years……"

The Eighth Plan (1992-1997) and the Ninth Plan (1997-2002) also envisaged the fulfillment of all the five year plans for National Land Reforms Policies. It needs no further emphasis to state that all the Plan documents have put considerable importance in the fact that, land is a very important asset and this has a direct role to play in overall development of the people in villages as well as towns. Even in urban areas land assets have great importance and no administration can afford to neglect the necessity of efficient management of land.

To put the Planning Commission efforts into practice the Conference of Revenue Ministers in 1985 advocated the pilot project approach for computerisation of land records data. Pilot projects were taken up in eight districts spread over that many states. Subsequently the scheme was extended in 1992 to cover 24 districts. By the end of the Eighth Plan 299 districts were brought under the scheme. At present the scheme is being implemented in 544 districts of the country. In 1998-99 funds were also allotted for digitization of maps and pilot projects were sanctioned in a number of states. Evaluation studies were carried out in different districts during 1999 and after that the Government issued out a comprehensive policy document called the VISION Document. Some of the important policy issues were covered in this document. However, there is a lot more to be done to have a closer look at the project. However, it is likely that even the contents of this document have not been properly disseminated to persons who need to know them.

What I have mentioned so far is to highlight the fact that after 12 years (88 to 2000) of efforts and spending several hundreds of crores of rupees, we are yet to see one complete district where the land records have been fully computerised and the administration can actually boast of using such a system for the purpose for which it is basically meant for. The subject primarily deals with the policy issues which are of great importance when we plan to develop a National Land Information System for a land of diversity like that of India. I plan to cover it under the following headings :-

Do we need a National LIS ?
Problems in creating a National LIS.
Policy issues to be addressed by the Central and the State Governments.

Do we need a National LIS ?
My experience in my meetings with state level functionaries often makes me feel that a large number of them do strongly feel that an LIS even at state level may not be of much use to them, leave alone at National level. Most of them visualise the CLR scheme as one of data entry and digitisation only.

Land records have been a state subject and the present manual system has so far been working. As to how efficient the present system is can be probably best judged by the success of the efforts on the part of the Government to implement the much-talked about Land Reforms. The courts today have lakhs of pending cases of land related litigations. It is also not uncommon to see the news papers with frequent headlines of law and order problems related to land related issues. Existence of land mafias, encroachments etc are directly related to the inadequacies in our land records and information system.

Whenever we talk about land information system the first thing that comes to our mind are the land records. I would like to emphasise that a land information system is not limited to the land records alone. Land is a national asset. Ironically, it is owned and exploited by individuals or organisations who hold the ownership rights. Yet it remains the responsibility of the state to look after it. Preservation, reclamation and development of land is a national issue which has to be looked at in a holistic manner. The information contained in the land records does not represent the total information about land as an asset or a resource. The august gathering here is well aware of the importance of information about land and its uses. Therefore let us think about a land information system and not just computeristaion of land records. Nevertheless, the beginning of the process may well have commenced from the existing land records. As we are all aware, there are a large number of departments within the government both at centre as well as the states and also the non-governmental agencies who need the information about land. Their needs are however not limited to the few items reflected in the land records alone. It is therefore obvious that we need to expand the horizon of information that should be included in a national LIS. These information have to be organised in such a manner that all agencies needing the information is able to access the same without any problems. This is only possible if we standardise and expand the important contents of the land database. Therefore the matter which needs to be resolved is that, whether we can seamlessly amulgamate the data held by the state governments and virtually place it in a national reservoir where anyone who needs it can access it easily. Therefore there is an inescapable need of an information system containing the information about land and made available to all users as and when required. This can only be achieved through a National Land Information System.

Problems and Policy Issues.
The government very rightly perceived that, to put in place a National LIS there would be numerous problems. Hence, the concept of pilot projects was accepted and they were sanctioned for eight districts in the country. Unfortunately the objectives of the pilot projects were not achieved and the entire exercise did not yield any worthwhile results. In spite of that, more and more projects were sanctioned and reports were sought from the state governments regarding utilisation of funds only. At no stage was it verified whether the projects were progressing in the right direction. It was only in 1999 that evaluation teams were sent to various states to study these projects which were undertaken so far and reportedly, have been completed 100 percent or nearly so. Some of the problem areas which I plan to bring out here were those reported by the evaluation teams. I would just list out the problems without any further elaboration at this point of time. Some of the policy issues would come of the problems themselves.

Understanding of the project by the persons responsible to implement them. Data entry was considered an end in itself whereas it was only a beginning of a dynamic process.
The software prepared did not meet the requirements of the user to maintain the computerised records regularly. Local language interface through hardware solutions were not found very efficient.
The administrative process of change in procedures and laying down of legal validity of computerised documents were not put in place in time.
On completion of data entry no action was taken to field test the system and continue its use on a long term basis.
Development of human resources did not take place simultaneously with the process of data entry. The emphasis was only on the number of data records entered and not number of tehsils where they were used. By the time the administration thought of using the data they were already outdated.
The beneficiaries of the project were not involved in the process and hence the demand from the public or the land users was not raised.
Resistance to the change was not handled in a manner to ensure smooth transition.

Apart from the above there are certain policy issues which need to be attended to. Some of these are urgent whereas some may be delayed slightly. These are grouped under the following heads:-

Administrative,
Legislative,
Technical and
Commercial.

Administrative Issues.

Organisation of the project implementation setup with adequate responsibility, authority and accountability.
Execution and monitoring of pilot projects.
Training of manpower to handle the new system at various levels. This would include executives at senior and middle level as well as supervisors and operators. The process would also include motivation and education of village level functionaries as well as users.
To formulate necessary administrative orders and procedures with proper administrative authenticity to implement the necessary changes. For example amendments to the land records mannuals etc.

Legislative Policy matters Ownership of properties have great importance in most legal matters. Whenever there are changes in procedures and documentation the legal process have to scrutinize the same and formalize through legislations. For the computerised documents to have legal acceptability these have to be formally legislated through appropriate means /instruments. The Central as well as State governments need to study the implications of computerisation and inact appropriate laws to support them.

Technical Issues.
There are a large number of technical issues which need to be addressed by the policy makers. They would attract detailed debate on each of the matters. This debate will carry on for a long time and the arguments will change with the sight of each new technology. Therefore our policy makers have to adopt a policy of laying down guidelines with tremendous foresight into the emerging technologies yet making the process administatively workable.We cannot afford to chase technology and at the same time have to keep up with time. The technical issues that need to be addressed are :-

Data bases.

Standardisation of data base structure and contents.
Data definition.
Data transportability across different RDBMS which may be used by different states.
Data warehousing and metadata sets.
Updation of data, maintaining data integrity.
Data security and backups.
Use of local languages and national compatibility.
Software for database management.

Digital Data

GIS software and their inter transportability.
Data formats.
Definition and standardization of attribute data.
Georeferencing parameters.
Scales for mapping.
Projection systems, grid systems and joining of maps at various levels.
Data conversion parameters and accuracies acceptable.
Preparation of new maps using modern survey techniques.

Project Implementation guidelines.

Terms of reference for project execution, time and expenditure as well as implementation strategy.
Where private vendors are involved guidelines for quality standards and other compliances.

Commercial Policy matters.
Information about land is of great value to government as well as the individuals. Transparency in land information will benefit the public immensely and also greatly reduce litigations and law and order problems. However it is important to lay down definite rules for legitimacy and ownership of information which may now be more easily available. The following policy issues need to be addressed:-

Ownership of information.
Access control of information.
Pricing of data and cost recovery.
Copyrights and authority to replicate or distribute data.
Value addition to data.
Cost recovery and self-sustenance of the system.

Conclusion.
I have made an effort to highlight some of the issues, which need to be addressed by the policy makers to expect a tardy development of a National Land Information System. While implementation of the system has to be done by different states, it is absolutely essential that the ground rules be laid down unambiguously for all players to follow. If it was made to cater for the needs of only a few it would be self defeating in the long run. We all have to change our mindset to accept the existence of the computers and electronic empowerment as a new dimension in e-governance. Earlier we change the better it is! If the ground rules are explicit, it does not matter how many players play the game. Let all private agencies, small and large, who have the know how and the ability to contribute, do so in a free and fair play ground.

References

Vision Document prepared by the Ministry of Rural Development, Land Resources Division, Govt of India.