The Digital Deed

Picture this. A farmer in south Kashmir walks for miles to reach the tehsil office. He's holding a paper so faded it's barely legible. It's the only proof he has that the land he tills belongs to him. Or maybe he has no paper at all, just his grandfather's word. He waits for hours, only to be told that the land he's claimed for generations doesn't show up in official records. Or worse, it does, but under someone else's name.

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That's not a one-off story. That's the system.

For decades, land ownership in Jammu and Kashmir has lived in dusty files, missing maps and family lore. Courts are jammed with land disputes. Banks refuse loans because no one trusts the paperwork. Builders stay away. People fight, not just over land, but over what that land means: home, inheritance, history.

Now, something big is happening. The government is trying to fix it.

Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo is leading a statewide push to digitize every land record, map every plot and verify every claim. That might sound like just another government scheme. But in a place where a mismarked boundary can start a feud, or stall a family's future, this could be a big revolution.