It is no secret that Indians are obsessed with property land and that is why it is considered as the most valued possession. Well, when it comes to maintenance of land records then there should be no scope of loophole since a single mistake on the government or citizen part can lead to the incurrence of exorbitant losses. Thereby, knowing the mistakes/issues beforehand can help anyone rectify them before the situation becomes worse.
Land records are maintained by different state departments that lead to the situation of multiplicity as it becomes cumbersome to ensure that everything runs in correspondence. Even discrepancy in the maintenance of land records can have a sure shot impact on the Real Estate sector. To resolve the underlying issues in the record of land maintenance, the Parliamentary Standing Committee has prepared a report highlighting the issues in maintaining land records in India. Have a Glance!
Issue 1: Space Constraints to Keep the Documents and Files of Land Records
Have you ever visited a government office where piles of files and documents are kept in a room in a detangled manner? If you felt intimidated and overwhelmed by imagining this dark room where there is no place to even walk. Then, you can comprehend the pain of someone who physically visits government offices to obtain the records of his land. Well, adequate maintenance of documents requires enormous storage rooms, tons of officials to keep a check and last but not least capital. Feels impossible to achieve, right?
When you are living in a digital era, then why even think of physically maintaining all the land records, when you can opt for paperless means. The one-stop solution is the digitization of land that makes everything effortless and hassle-free. Just like the Tamil Nadu government has introduced PattaChitta to confiscate the underlying hardships in maintaining land records.
Issue 2: Treachery in Land Registry
As we all know under the Registration Act, the government of India has made it compulsory for every citizen to register title and documents relating to property or land. But have you ever noticed that registration of ownership or title under this Act is still not permitted? And this loophole paves the way for fraudulent and counterfeit land registries. What makes a land registry prone to deception and vulnerability is the nonexistence of proof of land ownership. Although, physical maintenance of land records also creates a scope for fraudulent activity as anyone can anytime tamper with the documents. The government of Tamil Nadu and many other states noticed these loopholes and came up with the initiative of digitization of land records that big-time helps in eradicating the scope of scam. For Instance, Tamil Nadu came up with the PattaChitta online portal to bring uniformity in the maintenance of records.
Issue 3: No Uniformity and Bad Maintenance of Land Records
Under the digitization program, all the states launched their online platforms to manage land records. For Instance, Tamil Nadu came up with the TN PattaChitta.
Beyond accommodating and utilitarian behaviour of these online land record maintenance platforms, the drawback is each and every state has maintained land records in their respective regional language.
For Instance, a person from north India won’t be able to understand the Bengali language and it will get very tough for them to even read those land documents which are technical too. What leads to poor maintenance is most of the states don’t even update their land records that predominantly create discrepancies in details of the land. To resolve this issue and eradicate the hardship, both central and state governments together decided to maintain land records in one common nationwide used language and that is English. Furthermore, even amendments were introduced for the smooth functioning of the whole digitization process. For Example, in Tamil Nadu, Online Patta and Online Chitta are maintained in both Tamil and English.
Issue 4: Fear of Displacement and Deterioration of Physical Land Documents
There is a fear involved in maintaining a physical document of land records as they are exposed to theft, misplacement, damage, tampering and are also vulnerable to natural calamities like earthquakes, floods, etc.
A real-life example of the deterioration of land records is the Floods of 2005 that left Mumbai city in complete despair. At that time, it was reported that there was partial destruction of physical documents. There was a wipe out of evidence of ownership of land since at that time there were no soft copies.
To mitigate the chances of such destruction, all the land-related documents should be digitally uploaded on the well-designed software of the registrar’s office. Just like Tamil Nadu did, they came up with an online PattaChitta format so that all documents remain safe and secure under one roof.
Issue 5: No Involvement of Single Window Title Verification of Land Records
In India, multiple documents of land and property are maintained by various departments, making it a painstaking and daunting process of ownership investigation.
For example, registered documents related to the property are maintained by the registration department, revenue documents are checked by the tehsildar and you can find the cadastral map by visiting the survey department.
Now, the discourse is that most of these documents are found in bad condition to the extent that it is impossible to read them, or they are lost from these departments. Finding and accessing them seems like a real task, right? The one-stop solution to eradicate this hardship from its root is to initiate a single-window system for investigation of land ownership so that all the data is effortlessly accessed by government officials and also by the public.
The Wave of Digitization of Land Records
Digitization of land records has gained momentum in no time, and it has also paved the way for an upsurge in the growth rate of the real estate sector. Earlier due to the lack of adequate structure, various scams and disputes ensued. To address and eliminate these issues, Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme (DILRMP) was introduced by the government. The vision of the digital programme is to digitize land records encompassing mutations, surveys, maps and update all the land pertaining information in the maintenance system to mitigate the chances of any underlying land quarrel. In a nutshell, digitization offers clear-cut titles of land ownership and facilitates a smooth method. For Instance, Karnataka is the torchbearer to digitize land records followed by Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. This initiative helps in protecting landowners’ rights to ownership by confirming the ownership details. Now, let’s have a look at the fleet of benefits of digitisation in the real estate sector:
- Helps in availing transparent land record system
- Gives full authority to a single-window to handle land information and details such as updating of a survey, maps, etc.
- Gives easy accessibility to online sanction of occupancy certificates.
- Authenticates ownership status details.
Wrapping Up
With the advent of the digital era and technological advancement, every state should adopt a new-fangled form of maintenance of land records. Well, land records are maintained from the British era but this ancient technique of maintaining records is tested many times. Therefore, it is high time to hop on the trend of digitising every piece of land record information so that transparency is maintained, and a full proof system is put in place so that there is seamless access to land records.
Photo by Valeria Fursa on Unsplash
