NLRMP: Mission Possible

Indian Institute of Surveying and Mapping (IISM) is the country’s premier institution for human resources development in the realm of surveying and mapping in its modern incarnation. IISM recognizes that the cutting edge in the process of development is information dissemination. Hence, its efforts of generating awareness among various organization and training its manpower in modern trends in Surveying & Mapping like GPS, Total Station, Digital Photogrammetry, Digital Mapping & GIS. By taking this motto into account a understanding has been reached between Survey of India and the Ministry of Rural Development, Department of Land Resources to train various State revenue and land records department offi cials to meet their needs for modern technology in Computerization of Land records. A programme titled “Capacity Building” under National Land Records Modernization Programme has been designed to train and the updating the knowledge of

Decision makers level offi cers of two week duration

• Supervisory level offi cers of two months duration

• Working level officers of 4 months duration

On the following subjects

Concept and application of GPS, TOTAL STATION

An old revenue map taken as input material has been scanned and over that 10 sharp & well distributed points (i.e. both in map & ground) selected for giving Ground Control Point (GCP) by GPS Trimble 5700. Geo-referencing has been done by taking above 10 GCPs’ .

Concept of digital mapping, datum and Projection, Coordinate System

Geo referenced map has been put through UTM projection , WGS84 horizontal Datum & MSL as vertical datum. Digitization / vectorization has been done by taking suitable symbols, specially generated for the purpose. Insertion & deletion guide prepared and loaded into Total Station for further densifi cation of control points & update the map as well.

Data base, DBMS, GIS and its application

A special attribute data collection form has been made & taken to the field . The attribute data as collected has been tagged to the spatial data using Arc GIS 9.2 software. Query and analysis has been carried out for the tagged data using Arc GIS 9.2 Tools and final out put for Query analysis has been taken out.

Digital Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing

The modern trends in Digital Photogrammetry & Remote Sensing and their application has also been included to give an overall idea about updating of spatial data directly in a digital mode very quickly & economically by using suitable aerial photographs and/or satellite imagery of suitable resolution. So we can say that the modern instruments like GPS, Total Station along with attribute data integration for GIS is the only means to solve the complexity of the over volume and huge resources of land information for better assessment, planning and a quick decision in every fi eld. A little exposure is also given to quickly update the old map using Mobile Mapping System.These subject has been covered as per the requirement of the various level of offi cers. Till this month training for two batches of decision maker level offi cers (14+17 No’s) and one batch of supervisory level offi cers (20 No’s) has been completed. The states participated in the training programme till now are Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Orissa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharastra, J & K, Bihar, – Rajasthan, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. At the end of each course of supervisory level offi cer a project has been given to make them capable to handle the land modernization programme in their respective state and decision maker level offi cers has been trained in all the subjects mentioned above to equip them to manage and fulfi ll the managerial requirements of the state revenue and land records. As per the feed back received from various target group , we can say that they are well acquainted with aforesaid techniques in its entirety and confi dent of undertaking any project / job that is assigned to them in their ambitious NLRMP.

Put NLRMP on national agenda

The MoRD and the States have gathered a vast, strong, directing experience of 20 years in such erstwhile program, but in fragmented and not all-inclusive formats of CLR & SRAULR centrally sponsored schemes. Fortunately, the MoRD invested efforts in massive/ marathon exercise for envisioning, conceptualising and designing a revamped program named NLRMP, which the States could hardly bring to bear on their own. The NLRMP program outline and the detailed guideline ascertain the required base principles of Torrens System of conclusive land titling viz. single window, mirror, curtain and title insurance. The scope of the program neatly encompasses the preparatory activities viz. Computerisation of land records work covering data entry of all textual records, mutation records, other land attributes data, digitisation of cadastral maps and their integration, developing of Tehsil/ sub-division and district level data centres, Digital network connectivity among revenue offi ces. The program encompasses survey/resurvey and updating of the survey & settlement records using operational pure ground, hybrid methods and their relevant combination of TS, DGPS, AP, HRSI technologies. Registration was leftout from the erstwhile fragmented and not all-inclusive CLR & SRAULR schemes of the program. Registration is the initiator for transactional change in a particular land record. Now activities like – Computerization of the SRO, Data entry of valuation details, Data entry of legacy encumbrance data, Scanning & preservation of old documents, Connectivity of SROs with revenue offi ces – have been covered in the NLRMP.

Modern record rooms, land records management centres, Training & capacity building, Strengthening of the survey and revenue training institutes have been continued from the erstwhile program to the new NLRMP. Using the GIS platform for the land-titling system would be an all-inclusive and wide-ranging feature of the NLRMP. This activity covers georeferencing of the cadastral maps as base maps with RS data. Further integration with HRSI, SOI, FSoI map data would enable NLRMP for micro and macro planning and other relevant administrative and decision support applications. Legal changes by Amendments to The Registration Act, 1908, Amendments to The Indian Stamp Act, 1899, Model law for conclusive titling and Program management the new indispensable, important, necessary and vitally central aspects have been included in NLRMP.

Observation:

Computerisation of land records is one of the components of the ICT powered realtime conclusive land-titling system, the new NLRMP. This scheme was kicked-off in the year 1988. During 20 years of this erstwhile land records program (1988-2009), Karnataka, Gujarat, Goa like 3 to 4 states have reached a stage, where manual system of maintaining fi scal cadastre (registers for all parcels containing basic data such as ownership, location, area, land use, improvements and assessed value – used for tax purposes) has been replaced by computerised system with discontinuance of manual system. Even these 3 to 4 states have a long long way to go for attaining the stage of ICT powered on-line conclusive land-titling system. A continuous drive from the central government in terms of planning, fi nance, and guiding, coordinating, monitoring has shaped and helped the 3 to 4 states to achieve this stage. The other states are in process of reaching this stage. There can be no doubt about the sincere efforts by the other states. But, the argument here is, that every stake-holder of the NLRMP has to have clear understanding that this area of e-governance is the most complicated, intricate, diffi cult and tricky. This program is not easy than any other e-governance program. This program has multi facets viz. techno, legal, administrative, behavioural, attitudinal, political will. The most key and central concerns in implementation of the NLRMP would be:

• Putting up the program on national agenda

• Achieving NLRMP would involve, getting across many serious political, logistical, administrative, attitudinal and change management hurdles.

• Doing away with the old and insuffi cient records, cumbersome, opaque and susceptible to manipulations record keeping system is an excellent effortal idea the MoRD has engrossed.

• When the NLRMP would become reality, the stress faced by the 950 million grass-root citizen would be signifi cantly reduced, problems associated for a citizen facing and approaching multiple windows and the red-tape attitudinal fl avor would cease to exist.

• Authorities at the state and Central level, pulling together, would achieve the aim and would change the can-not happen mindset to make them happen.

A great step in right direction

Datum. It is good to note that WGS 84 has been recommended. This will however require conversion of all cadastral maps and other maps to WGS 84. All existing maps are in Indian system with Everest Spheroid as the reference surface.

Projection/Grid system. UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator) has been adopted.

In my opinion, Transverse Mercator and/or Lambert Conformal Conic with individual states as zones and origins nearly at geographical centers of the states will be more suitable. Many existing cadastral maps are on Cassini projection and some others arbitrary. These will have to be converted to adopted projection system.

Method of Survey/Data Capture. All the three methods suggested in the guidelines are feasible. Concrete experiments can only show cost effectiveness, ease and quality comparison between the three methods. Combination of these and different methods depending upon area and type of terrain can be adopted.

It will be better if all districts are surveyed/resurveyed afresh gradually.

Accuracy. Accuracy for horizontal and vertical control and for survey/

data capture have not been defi ned clearly. Suggestions are given here: –

Horizontal control: – Instead of specifying type of GPS to be used and duration of observation for GPS, accuracy of different requirements should be specified.

● Points 50 km apart with 1 in 50000 accuracy.

● Points 10 km apart with 1 in 20000 accuracy.

● Points 02 km apart with 1 in 2000 accuracy.

It is suggested that horizontal and vertical control points should ultimately be provided at every 2 km. This will be of great help in surveying with ETS (Electronic Total Station) and other instruments. Combination of GPS/ETS is suggested for horizontal control.

Vertical control: – Tertiary accuracy (24mm√K where K is in kilometers) between Survey of India primary/secondary benchmarks. The accuracy is achievable by tertiary leveling using Dumpy/Auto levels/ETS.

Survey: – Accuracy of all corners of land holdings in rural areas where scale of survey is 1:4000 can be 1 in 1000. Accuracy of all corners of property holdings in urban areas where scale of survey is 1:2000 can be 1 in 2500.

Training: – Training of teachers is essential who in turn can impart training to work force. It is good that training institutes are proposed to be strengthened.

Sheet Indexing: – It will be better to index the sheets state wise. One grid for one state and grid reference can guide sheet indexing. It should be indexed from bottom to top and not from top to bottom as we are in Northern hemisphere and Coordinate system is also from origin to East and North.