Punjab to complete digitisation of land records by March-end

Chandigarh, Jan 31 (PTI) The Punjab government today saidit targets to put entire land records in the state on websiteand complete record digitisation by March-end.

"We have targeted to complete computerisation of landrecords and put the record online by March 31," Punjab RevenueSecretary Anurag Verma said here.

The Punjab government has roped in Microsoft as thetechnology partner for developing applications for putting theentire record on website. Besides, it has also engaged CMSLimited for the digitisation of records.

The computerisation of land records will help the stateto achieve twin objectives of eliminating corruption in landdeals as well as boosting the state exchequer.

"The land records digitisation is a much needed step instreamlining the entire system pertaining to buying andselling of land in the state...besides it will certainly curbthe corruption at lower level," Confederation of Real EstateDevelopers Association of India (CREDAI) (Punjab unit) GeneralSecretary Amardeep Singh Heera said.

Currently, land deals in Punjab is fraught with seriousrisks involving cases of land grabbing and cheating byunscrupulous people with the collusion of certain lower rankrevenue officials by manually amending the records themselves.

Several cases have come up in the state in whichespecially non-resident Indians (NRIs) have complained oftheir land grabbed by land mafia operating in the state.

"With the digitisation of land records and beingaccessible on website, cases of cheating in property dealsand bribing revenue officials for getting details regardingproperty information could be curtailed to a great extent,"property experts pointed out.

Punjab government has so far put land records of 1,200villages on website to allow people to access ''Jamabandi'',''Mutation'', etc.

"The records of remaining 11,600 villages will also bedone within the targeted time," said Verma.

The state has also opened 65 ''Fard Kendras'' covering2,822 villages and planned to have 91 more such kendras infuture.

"Revenue record like Jamabandi register, Mutationregister, Roznamcha register of all the villages fallingwithin that Tehsil, Sub-Tehsil will be stored in digital format that Fard Kendra and anybody who wants copy of hisJamabandi, Mutation can go to the Kendra and obtain that copyacross the counter, instead of running after revenue officials(Patwari)," said Verma.