Raman Bhalla
Last week I was at the conference of the state revenue ministers in New Delhi. The conference had been convened by the union rural development ministry to discuss the progress made by various states under National Land Records Modernization Programme (NLRMP), a centrally sponsored scheme, essentially, encompassing two major components of land reforms and land records modernisation. In the course of deliberations, I discovered that some states have marched ahead of us and are closing in on the home stretch of the programme even as some have lagged behind and have a fair bit of ground to cover. As for us, I found that we are neither too far nor too close, but rather perched somewhere in between. Not a particularly happy predicament to be in, but not a sad one either, I guess.
There were moments at the event when I found myself slipping into introspection on whether we should look over our shoulders at the laggards and stay comfortably ensconced in the current state of inertia or look at those galloping ahead and find ways to catch up. I found no solutions there, but when I came back and considered the issue in detail, I was convinced that we have to transform our walk into a gallop and be in the vanguard, and not where we are at present, for that is our calling and we can’t turn our backs on it.
The state of Haryana is the stand-out performer in this sphere. It has made full use of its small size and structural regularity of land parcels in conducting state wide survey followed by the electronic measurement of the land parcels and finalisation of record of rights (RoR) for the entire state. Haryana today is the only state which has updated land records and started delivering them electronically to the land owners. Even though it has amenable geographical endowments, it would be nowhere, if its human resource had not shown required appetite and courage to bridge the distance between conviction and conduct to deliver on the natural endowments. Haryana officers have proved that conviction is worthless, if it is not translated into conduct. Going forward, the next logical step for Haryana now is to integrate the tehsil offices with the sub-registrar offices on real time basis. Once inventories in tehsil offices are electronically coupled with the registration offices, it will have two positive spin-offs. One, the system will be more transparent and efficient; second, it will eliminate the arbitrariness of the revenue personnel.
I was also impressed with the Karnataka’s ‘Bhoomi’ programme under which land records are being dispensed from the kiosks to the applicants sparing them the trouble to go to the multiple offices in the government. Though Karnataka has not updated land records of the entire state on the lines of Haryana, it has largely eliminated the human interface by migrating to e-regime even as it continues with its updation effort on the lines articulated in the NLRMP.
Somewhat similar regime presently exists in Andhra Pradesh, but what struck me the most about this southern state was the concept of paralegals there, an army of legal practitioners, engaged by the state, who assist in disposing off the land related cases. AP has brilliantly innovated the concept of fast track courts through these far more mobile and efficient paralegals and the concept has reportedly delivered in that the graph of land litigations has dived southwards across many regions in the state. For a change, Uttar Pradesh also sprang a surprise by stating that it has formulated a single master legislation subsuming all the existing land related legislations with a view to simplifying the land regulatory regime for the common land owners. The legislation presently rests with the president of the union for his assent.
As regards our state, our performance on land reforms has been extremely good. Through measures like big landed estate abolition act and agrarian reforms act, we have been able to impound land from the landed class and give it to the landless. With the fixation of ceiling on land that one can hold in respect of different classes of land, it has been ensured that feudal tendencies are eliminated for good. Creation of tenancy, save as in some cases, and absentee landlordism have also been done away with. More recently, another enabling legislation, namely, vesting of ownership rights of the state lands to occupants, popularly known as Roshni Scheme, was also introduced to further advance the cause of land reforms. According to one estimate, more than 8 lakh families have benefited from these land equalisation measures. Such reforms are not easy to carry out and there are not many states in the union which have done so.
In the area of land record modernization too, we have moved forward in a surefooted way. As a part of the ongoing land settlement in the state, out of 7054 villages, 4519 villages have been taken up for settlement even as 2324 of them have been measured. Of the villages measured, 1759 villages have their RoRs prepared. RORs of 750 villages are in the process of being put out in the public domain through the national informatics centre. Though we have employed a mix of traditional methods and a new technological tool called electronic total stations, so far, emphasis from here onwards would be on using the new technological tools only, so that the pace and quality in the operations and outcome are ensured. Towards this direction, we have developed an in-house software, which would facilitate sifting of errors (the process colloquially called ‘Chant’) through the analysis of current land records. Our departmental analysis has shown that with the deployment of the above technique, the time taken to survey, measure and finalise RoR of a single Khasra number shall be dramatically reduced from 4.68 hours to 0.5 hour. This inspires confidence in me that we can complete the settlement work across the state within 5-6 years, should there be no major disruptions in other inputs and associated processes.
When my turn came to share my thoughts on the subject at the event, I informed the gathering that though the J&K state is a special category state for plan assistance, it has been clubbed with normal category states under this programme with the result financial assistance to the state is being provided under 50:50 pattern as opposed to the 90:10. I strongly pitched for modification in the funding pattern for the J&K state under NLRMP following which the union rural development minster intervened and held out an assurance to consider the request favourably. Similarly, I made a pitch for doing away with the spending rigidity in the programme, as it had led to poor expenditure off-take across multiple states since the onset of the programme. Incidentally, my suggestion yet again registered and the union rural development minister while agreeing that the spending flexibility in the programme was necessary, assured that he would have the instructions in this regard issued shortly. Though I spoke for only 10-15 minutes, I ended up making game changing interventions at the event.
Such conferences are not ends unto themselves, but only means to achieve the desired ends. I have some takeaways from this event, which I would like to discuss with my officers for their applicability in the context of our state to hasten the process of land record modernization. Some structural reforms are already underway, but we need more of the same to ensure that next time this conference is organised, J&K state constitutes the vanguard of the land record modernisation movement with the other best performing states of the union.
(The writer is a Minister for Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation in the State Government)
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