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e-Governance

Oct 2007 | Comments Off

A K Jain

S.No.	Activities	Status (2007)
1.	Villages where DDA has acquired land or acquisition under process	238 villages (227 + 11)
2.	a) Data entry of land records of acquired/under acquisition village	238 villages (227 + 11)
	b) Preparation of land inventory of Nazul Villages	3
	c) Cross checking of inventory prepared	227
3.	Scanning of maps (massive / sajras) of acquired or under acquisition villages: Good Bad / tattered Not available
4.	Digitisation of maps
	a) Villages in which acquisition took Place	187
	b) Villages under acquisition process	8
5.	Validation of maps	176
6.	Integration of land records with digitized maps	161

HARIS in Haryana

The HARIS (Haryana Registration Information System) provides a facilitates the registration of property documents. It functions very much like the SARITA of Maharashtra. The experience shows that e-Governance has improved public service, which has huge potential of its applications.

Land Management Information System of the DDA

The LMIS project was started in 2001 to computerize the village wise land inventory of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA). The objective of this project is to have accurate and readily available information in respect of DDA lands and its utilisation. The information used for this project is based on the records of DDA and the records of L&B Deptt., and Divisional Commissioners, GNCTD

The experience of the LMIS project indicates the following major problems:
1) Incomplete Land Record Registers.
2) Non-availability of old records such as Notifications under Section-4 and 6, Awards, Possession proceedings etc..
3) A number of shazra land maps / records (massive) are either in tattered condition or not available.
In such cases, the digitization of villages is done on the basis of field books and sajras available with the revenue authorities. The LMIS attempts to depict a coordinated and layered set of land information relating to status of acquisition / ownership, land use, compensation paid / due, utilisation, transfer, court cases, its development / services, encroachments, and other relevant information. This will provide a clear picture of all lands on the computers.

The way forward

A lot needs to be done to offer better governance. The adoption of e-governance by local authorities can simplify things and improve government. Local bodies need to dispense unclassified information, which is useful to the public, through their websites. This will not only save the time and resources of the local bodies, but also make the task easier for the public.

1) Information on building codes and development plans can be put on web-sites. Such information is already available to the public some cities in India and abroad.
2) New projects and layout plans etc. approved by local bodies can be put into a website, so that people can access the information and avoid buying properties in certain unapproved projects.
3) Information like a cut in water supply and power can be announced on the sites itself.
4) All the applications / forms for services offered by local authorities can be made available online.
5) Committee reports and enquiry reports, which are not confidential, should also be placed on websites for public view.
Payment of property tax and other bills needs to be made online to make it easier for the public.
6) Customer service cells can be created at the local level. These can look after the complaints and suggestions registered online as well as cover the phone. There should be a strong backup system to take action against these complaints and send the feedback to the person who has filed the complaint.