THE GROUND REALITY

Karnataka shows the way in how to harness reform and technology for efficient land governance

- By AJAY SUKUMARAN

BHOOMI

Launched in 2000

Achievement: 67 per cent of land record updation tasks in a year in Karnataka now happen automatically without any manual intervention

THE DRUDGERY

Bribes to government officials, land-related fraud, delays, disputes, farmers' inability to access bank loans...the problems associated with the manual keeping of land records were all too familiar. Aware of this drawback, the central government had launched a pilot programme as far back as in 1989 to computerise land records. But with ground realities varying from state to state, that project proceeded in fits and starts. Even today, computerisation of land records is pending in 24,257 villages across India. The coverage is the lowest in the states in the north-east—Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Manipur—according to data by the Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme (DILRMP).

HOW IT TRANSFORMED MY LIFE

"The app has been heaven-sent"