Computerisation of urban land records- Case study for city survey land records of Ahmedabad district, Gujarat state

Computerisation of urban land records- Case study for city survey land records of Ahmedabad district, Gujarat state

Rakesh Halari
Project Manager
NESTEC SOLUTIONS
Unit of Suryanagari Fin Lease Ltd.
3rd Floor, Blue Star Complex,
Nr. Old High Court Rly. Crossing
Navjivan P O, Ahmedabad 380014
Tel. 079-643 0928, 643 1464 (O), 656 8044 (R)
Email: rakeshalari@hotmail.com

Introduction
In India, even after 50 years of independence, Land Reforms are still under infancy in most states. Gujarat State has a little better status over some of the other states, since every sq. inch of land in Gujarat is surveyed. Land Records are prepared scientifically and stored within a well-defined system.

Over a period of time, struggle for 1 sq. m. land in urban areas leads to Civil Court cases. Number of such cases has flooded all courts and so there is an urgency of an established Land Information System. It has been observed that the focus of Land Information System has been over Cadastral Revenue Records computerization. An approach for computerization of Urban Land Records i.e. Cities/Towns which includes the Property ownership & other attribute information, spatial scope of the property, maintenance of the spatial & tabular database, is still in infancy.

In earlier years, each king/emperor had limited land and limited purpose for assessment of tax and a very limited purpose of maintenance of title. Survey operations were held reports were produced and stored on man-made Paper.

Now, Land Records have turned to be highly dynamic. Thus, they require efficient and better methods/means of Record Storage, Retrieval & maintenance. In terms of Land Records Department, Records consist of Original measurement sheets, city maps, gunakar books, inquiry register, property card, sanad, tenure abstracts, mutation register, receipt on payment, advance payment receipt, notice for right omission, challan, challan register, permanent revenue abstracts, miscellaneous revenue, local cess, reconciliation, etc. But with the changing times, complexities of data available have risen and hence a need of Computerization of Land Records has been felt. In case of Village Cadastral Records of Revenue fields, records my change once over a period of 2-3 years. Hence, updating Land Records is not so difficult. But in Cities, Records are relatively more dynamic and the cost of Land is a major issue. Cost of 1 sq. m. land in cities may range from Rs. 500 to Rs. 10,000 depending upon the localities and landscape, whereas in case of Villages, 1 Acre of land may range from Rs. 2,000 to Rs. 5,000.

So there is an urgent need, higher priority and emergency for modernization of Land Records in cities/towns. Information Technology can address all needs of the Land Record modernization in a planned manner with highest level of transparency in the system for monitoring and maintaining ever-changing Urban Land Records. Development of Urban Land Information & Management System is the need of the hour for effective implementation of Urban development programmes.

Methodologies
Land Records Information System (LaRIS), is a regional customized LIS package for use by agencies responsible for monitoring & implementing development & Planning Land Records of a city/town i.e. City Survey Office, Town Planning Office, Urban Development Authority, Municipal Corporation etc.

All the cities are surveyed by Govt. Surveyors and the information is stored under the surveillance of City Survey Superintendent (CSS), who is also responsible for updating, maintaining and managing city survey records. Cities are further segmented into Wards for ease of administration.

Entire problem was divided into various modules :

Computerization of existing City Survey Data (Spatial & Ownership).
Methods for maintenance & reproduction/reprint of City Survey Data on the basis of change taking place.
Scope of entering extensions of existing Cities and fresh surveyed City Survey data of new Cities.
Computerization of City Survey Accounts.
Creation of City-Wise, Taluka/Mandal-wise, District-wise Reports of revenue paid and pending.
Query & Analysis of City Survey Ownership Attribute data for planning & development of City.
Providing City Survey Records over Government Intranet using Client-Server Architecture.
Indianizing the Software by creating User Interface in Gujarati (regional Indian language) for ease of operation.
Export Spatial data from LaRIS to any GIS package (AutoCAD Map, ARC/INFO, GeoMedia etc.)
Do not just sign, eSign Land Records with Date/Time stamp.

Each module is explained in detail:

Computerization of Existing City Survey Data (Spatial & Ownership)
Existing City Survey Record are available with CSS Office in Property Cards (called VF\S[,]\ SF0" in Gujarati) and City maps. All the maps were computerized in various layers by deploying AutoCAD as per the prescribed scale. Data was entered from Property Cards completely in Gujarati language (font).
Methods for maintenance & reproduction/reprint of City Survey Data on the basis of change occurring.
CSS maintains the City Survey Records in case of Transfer by Sale Deed (J[RF6 N:TFJ[H)/Heredity (JFZ;F.), Sub-division (lJEFU DF56L) of a City Survey Number, Consolidation (V[S+LSZ6) of two or more City Survey Nos. based on certain criteria, Extension of City Limits, Land Acquisition for purpose of Developmental works, etc. All the changes occurring are reflected not only in the Attribute Table but also its Spatial database. According to the Rules & Regulations, Only when more than 25% of the spatial data has changed, the city survey sheets could go for reprint, whereas now a new print can be obtained that is true as on date and time, i.e. the most updated data.

Tenure, which is the most important attribute information as regards to maintenance of the City Survey Land Records, is very elaborately addressed. Tenure also plays an important in decision of the Land Revenue of the City Survey No. and also for Consolidation of two or more City Survey Nos.

Upon maintenance of Land Records, we are not editing the existing records, but instead creating and editing an instance of the existing Land records. Hence, the Original Map and data is not get changed at any given time. Thus, we can produce the original surveyed data, whenever required.
Scope of entering fresh surveyed City Survey data of new Cities and Extensions of existing Cities.
Now that we have considered data entry of old City Survey records i.e. Property Cards. Fresh Map data & brief ownership data available from a Survey Party is entered to LaRIS. Map data is further geo-processed and re-structured as per the standards of LaRIS for easy storage, retrieval & maintenance. Major responsibility of Inquiry Officer is to inquire about each property for their easement & accessibility rights. Inquiry Officer enters all such information directly into the computer instead of writing information in Inquiry register (T5F;6L 5+S). Upon completion, Sanad (;GN) and Property Card (VF\S[,]\ SF0") is prepared and printed alongwith Inquiry Register. In the manual system, there is no property map on the Property card, which will now be available by LaRIS.
Accounts Dept. Computerization.
It consists of preparing, storing, calculating & printing various Receipts (Revenue, Education Surcharge, Survey Fee, Sketch Fee, Property Card Copy Fee, Sanad Fee etc.), Challans (depositing revenue collected in Government Treasury), Cash/Cheque Vouchers, Village Form No. 2 (UFD GD}GF G\P Z v ALHL SFID p5HG]\ 5+Sf i.e. Permanent Income from non-agricultural land-use, Village Form No. 4 (UFD GD}GF G\P $ v 5ZR]Z6 HDLG DC[;], VG[ T[ p5ZGF ,F[S, ;[;G]\ T5;L,JFZ 5+Sf i.e. Classified Miscellaneous Income from Revenue & Local Cess, Village Form No. 11 (UFD GD}GF G\P !! v 9ZFJA\WDF\ VFJTL ZSDF[G]\ 8F/F 5+Sf i.e. Reconciliation among different Village forms(VF1, VF2, VF4 & VF9), Challan Register, City-wise/Taluka-wise(Mandal-wise)/District-wise Classified Income Report, Attendance & Payroll, etc.
Creation of City-Wise, Taluka/Mandal-wise, District-wise Reports of revenue generated and pending.
City-wise/Taluka-wise/District-wise Reports regarding the Revenue collected and pending could be evaluated and be used for various planning and developmental activities/programmes by various State Govt. Department's like Urban Development, Roads & Building, Electricity Boards, Water Supply & Sewage etc.
Query & Analysis of City Survey Ownership Attribute data for planning & development of City.
A special tool to build up complex queries like :- List out the City Survey Nos. with their ownership details located in Ward No. X and having area more than Y sq. m. and pending (unpaid) Land Revenue more than Rs. Z. Many other queries on land-use patterns can be created by the user without bothering to know what is an SQL statement ? Microsoft Access / MS SQL Server / Oracle ? How to design queries ? Run queries ? Based on which various customized and task specific reports can be generated and submitted to the Inquirer within no time.
Providing City Survey Records over Government Intranet using Client-Server Architecture.
LaRIS is basically prepared using a well-designed Client-Server Architecture. Suppose a City Survey Office (One PC or a number of PCs with a Local Area Network) located in Jamnagar requests for some information from the server in HeadQuarters i.e. Gandhinagar. The moment the Jamnagar Client gets connected to our Gandhinagar Remote Access Server (RAS), all the data on Jamnagar Client's PC, which is not served to the Database Server, will start uploading automatically. Thereby, Database of Jamnagar Client gets replicated on the HQ Server without user's intervention.

Meantime, Database of all the cities in the state can be viewed/browsed by any of the Client. Hence, making all database viewable over Land Records Intranet.

Indianizing the Software by creating User Interface in Gujarati (regional Indian language) for ease of operation.
LaRIS is developed using Gujarati language for easy adaptability and utility by the Land Records Officials. In a similar fashion, all the other software to be developed should be done using Indian interface for fastest adaptability and understanding.
Export Spatial data from LaRIS to any GIS package (AutoCAD Map, ARC/INFO, GeoMedia etc.)
All the maps and parcel data maps are prepared using a precise & accurate drafting/designing tool - AutoCAD 2000 from AutoDesk Inc. Maps once digitized /computerized can be directly exported to any of the GIS packages for further advanced utility like Satellite Imagery Data for Interpretation, analysis & study.
Do not just sign, eSign the records with date and time.
When all the Land Records are computerized and are available on Computers, Networks or Storage media, how would Official authenticate these Records or documents? In the manual system, each record was signed. Now to sign, what the official needs to do is just click a mouse button on the screen and he will sign the documents for authentication, which is stored in the PC as an authenticated Document hereafter. An optional facility is also provided which will permit to stamp time/date of signing/authenticating the documents or Land Records.

To use the Sign and date/time stamp, second level of security i.e. password, is provided. Thus, unauthorized use of signature is avoided.

Some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's)
FAQ's needed to be answered for giving a complete & full-proof solution for creation, management & maintenance of Land Records are as enlisted below:

What about the security of the precious Land Records ? It may be tempered by anyone in the staff and hence may cause a serious damage to the City Survey Land Records.

Well nothing to worry about. Security is the first and foremost priority for any Department holding Land Records. Hence, during the login the User has to enter his/her own login name & password without which entry is prohibited.

And it is the sole responsibility of the user not to share or inform his/her login & password for the reason that all the entries, he makes upon successful login, is been writing the user name and date/time corresponding to the entry. Hence, If anybody plays foul with it, immediately the user gets trapped and can be penalized according to his/her offence by the Department/Court. Due to this fear of penalty, the staff may be more responsible and honest for not sharing their own password. If they do so and the other staff member plays foul then he/she who shared the secrecy would get penalized.

If one of the staff member deletes one of the City Survey Records or say Records for the entire city then Is it possible that we can retrieve that data/Information without any Land Records loss?

Firstly, no permission/rights are given to the administrator or any user for deleting any record or records. So there is no question of retrieving the lost data. Even in case of Hard Disk corruption, nothing to worry about. Disk mirroring as well as Backups taken on external media will help you to retrieve a major chunk of your data. Additionally using the latest IT techniques, whenever the user PC gets connected to its Server at Headquarters, all the new changes and updated data shall be transferred into the Server which shall be again taking backups. It is a 100% guaranteed & redundant system. Thus, no loss of precious Land Records occurs.

In a situation, that Party-A sells & transfers the property to Party-B. And in such a way about 15 owners of the property have changed. Now that in the manual working, we were able to trace out the entire history of the property transfer. Can we get complete history of the Property Transfer ?

Yes, why not? In addition to that Stamp Papers and/or legal documents registered at Sub-Registrar Office could be scanned and stored alongwith the specific Ownership data and Map identifying area & extent of the property. This would store all the original documents and land records related to the property, available from the same PC, i.e. an approach in line to the Single - Window clearance as addressed by most governments.

How would the recent data entered at a Client's PC be replicated at the HeadQuarters Server, if the Client does not get connected to the Server for about 1 month or more ? If due to some reason, data loss occurs, is it possible that we can retrieve such recent data ?

That's very right, but that may never occur. LaRIS gets connected to all its clients on Saturdays/Sundays (as per the administrator's instructions) who have not got connected to the Server in the past week, automatically. Connection with the Client will be maintained as per the time set by Administrator. During this connection, recent client data will be replicated on the HQ Server. Hence, in case of loss of data at Client-side would not exceed one week.

Upon the dynamism of the data and its updation, connection per week with clients can be increased i.e. twice in a week or daily, based on the importance and priority set upon administrator's instruction.

Hardware & Software Requirements
Any IBM Compatible Personal Computer with a Mouse could be used. No other additional Hardware is necessary. Additionally Modems could be connected for linkage with District Offices or Headquarters.

LaRIS developed to work on PCs using Microsoft Windows 95/98/NT/2000 as Operating System. Desktop version uses Microsoft Access for storage of database. Any of the popular Database Servers viz. Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase, Informix etc. can be used to the choice of the Government as the Database Server at State Land Record Head Quarters.

AutoCAD 2000 is the drafting / designing tool on the back-end for spatial database creation and maintenance used by LaRIS.

A Platform independent version is under development, which would also provide flexibility of using any third-party drafting / designing tool such as AutoCAD, MicroStation, Imagineer, etc.

Human Resources
One Maintenance Surveyor, One Accounts Clerk, One Record Keeper & City Survey Superintendent can efficiently do all those jobs being presently catered by more than 15 person staff, upon successful implementation and data entry of City Survey Records.

Future Scope
Upon the Land Records Dept.'s request & approval, a future extensibility can be provided to make the Land Records web-enabled. Thus, creating a transparent administrative environment.

Most State Land Records Dept could integrate LaRIS with the Rural Land Records to make it an ultimate LIS. Well, there is a very bright future for LaRIS with its extensibility to most of the State Government Dept.