NOT TO BE PUBLISHED/BROADCAST/BEFORE  23rd June  2008

Land is the most prized possession of an individual and next only to water it is largest single natural resource available to the humanity. It is not only an important economic asset in an agrarian economy, but also an essential resource for one’s existence & livelihood. Without land there can be no groundwork for carrying on human activities.  Policy makers, resource planners and administrators who make decisions regarding land, need more detailed information regarding land than has been traditionally available. Although efforts are made to improve the manual system of maintenance of land records, but these efforts are not sufficient. For this the State Government has decided to computerize land record in the State as Computerization of this oldest system offer improved way of acquiring, storing, processing and retrieving information related to land use and ownership.

A Pilot Project for computerization of Core data was initiated for Kangra district way back in 1991-92 so as to assist development planning and to make the records more accessible to the people, planners and administrators. The main objective of this was to facilitate easy maintenance and updating of the changes which occur in the land database such as changes due to availability of irrigation, consolidation or on account of legal changes like transfer of ownership, partition, land acquisition, lease etc.

At present Computerization of Land Records work is in progress in all the Districts and the data entry process of 107 Tehsils/ Sub-Tehsils out of 109 Tehsils is in progress. Till date, data entry work of 19734 revenue villages against 20881 has been completed and percentage comes out 95 %.  The data entry of remaining villages i.e. 942 villages will be completed shortly so that all the Tehsils /Sub- Tehsils will be made on line in the State and general public will get computerized copies of their revenue records.  Till date 97 Tehsils/ Sub-Tehsils have been made on line  and have started issuing of computerized copies of Records of Rights (ROR) to the general public.

Also the Tehsil centres are becoming hubs of e-governance where in various services like issuance of RoR Nakal, property registration are going on, it seemed appropriate to expand the scope of services from the Tehsil centres so that in one visit citizen may get as many services as possible. Also in 29 sub-divisions ‘Pehal’ e-governance centres have already been established and are offering services like issue of driving license and vehicle registration. With the introduction of computerized system, issuance of certificates in these centres the scope of further expanding the services have increased. 

A project under National Land Resource Management Programme (NLRMP) for providing funds to the tune of Rs.1551.58 lakhs to the State  has been sent to the Government of India.   During the financial year 2007-08 Government of India has sanctioned Rs 429 lac  under the Centre Sponsored Scheme for Strengthening of Revenue Administration and Updating of Land Records (SRA and ULR).  This project includes resurvey of an area of 2826 Sq. Km. excluding forest area, of Sirmour District @ Rs. 15000 per Sq. Km.  and re-modernization of Settlement Offices by spending Rs. 424 lac and training of Survey & Settlement staff on modern survey equipment at Survey of India etc. by spending a sum of Rs 5 lac.  Under this project, resurvey work of land would be done by using latest technology so that the maps could be maintained and updated in a single unit. 
 
Settlement operation in District Kinnaur, Sub Division Spiti,  Shimla and Tehsil Rampur, Dodra Kawar, Suni, Shimla Urban, Sub Teshil Tikkar, Nankari and Nerwa of Shimla District, Nagar Panchayat of Ponta Sahib in Distt. Sirmour has been completed.  In addition to this, the Settlement Operation in Tehsil Rohru, Jubbal, Kotkhai, Theog and Sub-Teshil Kupvi  is about to be completed shortly.   Settlement Work in Tehsil Shimla (rural). Chopal, Sub-Tehsil Junga of Shimla District and Tehsil Arki and Kasauli of Solan District and Nagar Panchayat area of Tehsil Gumarwin, District Bilaspur, Nagar Panchayat area of Shahtalai area of Tehsil Jhanduta and Tehsil Rajgarh Distt. Sirmour is in progress. During Settlement operation, record of Shajra Kishwar (Mushabi), Khatoni. Aks Momi, Latha, field book, Missal Hakiat.  Khasra Girdawari, Frad-Bachh are prepared and the same is being computerized.

Computerization of land records have played a significant role by not only standardizing the Land records documents, procedures and implementation of various acts & policies but has also made life of people easy by making available legible records of rights (ROR) in time without any hassle and they need not chase the Patwari for copy of ROR. The computerization has been adopted overwhelmingly both by department as well as the public. Patwari now has more time to serve public and perform multiple official duties and at the same time, the public has been put into convenient position as one can obtain ROR from Tehsil/Sub-Tehsil centre on any working day by filling a simple application form. Now it takes just 10 minutes to obtain  a copy of ROR, whereas earlier one had to wait for 2-3 months to procure the same.