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Urban Bhoomi

Bhoomi to get urban makeover
TNN Feb 11, 2008

Like farmers, even owners of non-agricultural lands can now get an ‘extract certificate’ of their properties, which will hold more credence than the khata. Shortly, every inch of land in the state would be mapped under Urban Bhoomi, a new avataar of the existing Bhoomi project.

Bhoomi or computerisation of land records, the flagship of Karnataka’s e-governance projects, has been extensively used by farmers. Bhoomi provides for computerisation of agricultural land records by giving out a record of right, tenancy and crop certificate (RTC) to the land owners. A user fee of Rs 15 is charged per record. Bhoomi deploys online updation and state of the art biometric system, which authenticates users based on their fingerprints and curbs hacking of the system.

Urban Bhoomi is being seen as a major move to record all lands irrespective of their nature — private, government or non-agricultural. According to IT secretary in charge of e-governance M N Vidyashankar, Urban Bhoomi will incorporate property details provided by all the 216 urban local bodies, city corporations and Greater Bangalore and run its own land titling verification software.

To make the project a success, the first step is to bring stamps and registration, survey and settlement and land acquisition departments under Bhoomi umbrella. Any land transaction, be it sale or purchase, land notification and acquisition, will be linked to Bhoomi.

How will the project work? Like agriculture land records, even non-agricultural properties (only land, not buildings) will be computerised and a database made. Property owners can take the extract certificate from Bhoomi kiosks which comes with a user fee, which is likely to be Rs 15 per copy. This can be used as a vital property document.

Whenever any land transaction happens, the status will be updated automatically. For instance: if a plot in Jayanagar is sold, as soon as the document registration is done at stamps and registration department, the Bhoomi database will also be updated, Vidyashankar explained.

Among other initiatives to redraw Bhoomi will look into the following aspects: improving the process of reporting acquisition of rights, mapping the history of land transactions, having a web-based design to view RTC and mutation status and handling requests for alienation of agricultural lands for non-agricultural purposes.

New Requirements
Link Bhoomi with banks, registration department, judiciary and irrigation department. Streamline land acquisition for various purposes. Creating citizen ID and inserting the photo of the land owner.

‘Bhoomi will simplify land transactions’
TNN Feb 24, 2008

Bhoomi, the e-governance iniatitive to computerize rural land records in Karnataka, will be overhauled, said IT secretary M N Vidyashankar while delivering a lecture on ‘Information technology and e-governance initiatives in Karnataka’, organized by the Indian Institute of Public Administration in the city on Saturday.

Elaborating on the integration of Bhoomi to track land acquisition by bodies such as BDA, BMRDA and NHAI, he said all sub-registrar offices will be linked online. This will make the department of survey and settlement and inspector-general of stamps and registrations redundant, as every copy of record of rights extracted will generate a sketch of the land and village. Land transactions regarding ownership, tenancy, loans, nature of title, irrigation details, crops grown, crop loans, legal action and security scholarships for schoolchildren will be updated within 30 days.

“We will send out out an expression of interest in the next 10 days. The project will be completed within 18 months after it is tendered. Nearly 200 lakh properties from 30,300 villages will be made available online,’’ added Vidyashankar.
Why IT?

Batting for IT, Vidyashankar said, “India’s annual expenditure under nonplanned and planned heads is Rs 930 crore. But it is difficult to account for such a large sum. IT builds accountability and breaks geographical and interdepartmental barriers. We need e-governance to keep an eye on the government, as it highlights wastage and dishonesty.’’

tsubba's picture

Bhoomi Quality of Service Stats ...

Stats from the survey by PAC with users of Bhoomi kiosks:
Report Card on Service of Bhoomi Kiosks(2002)

Ease of use ...
66% users who were able to use Bhoomi system with no help.
25% users who were able to use manual system with no help.
78% who had past experience with the manual system found the Bhoomi system more simple.

To get the job done ...
79% bhoomi system users met only one official
19% manual system users met only one official
69% manual system users met two to four officials
1.43 average number of officials met by bhoomi system users
3.25 average number of officials met by manual system users

79% bhoomi system users waited less than 10 minutes in queque.
27% manual system users waited less than 10 minutes in queque.

72% bhoomi system users got the RTC in one visit.
5% manual system users got the RTC in one visit.

66% manual systems users paid bribe to get RTC.
3% bhoomi system users paid bribe to get RTC.
Rs.152.46 average amount of bribe paid manual system
Rs.3.09 average amount of bribe paid bhoomi system

85% bhoomi system users say staff behaviour was good
0% manual system users say staff behaviour was good.

Errors
74% users got error free documents bhoomi system
63% users got error free documents manual system.

81% wrongly spelt names manual system
53% wrongly spelt names bhoomi system

31% major errors in land details manual system
4% major errors in land details bhoomi system

Response to errors
93% bhoomi system users complained and sought rectification
49% manual systems users complained and sought rectification

58% bhoomi system users got timely response to errors.
4% manual system users got timely response to errors.

Hangover Effects
18% of Bhoomi users reported that their document was not signed by the appointed village accountant.
6% reported that they filled out an application form for issue of an RTC.


tsubba's picture

Bhoomi

Land records at the click of a mouse

http://www.hindu.com/2008/02/24/stories/2008022458840300.htm 

How would you know if the land purchased by you has encroached into forest land or falls into a potential special economic zone? What is the easy way to purchase land without having to visit different government departments and have a clear picture of everything from the land use pattern to the ownership history of your newly acquired territory?

Bhoomi-2, touted as a re-engineered and software enabled version of the current Bhoomi programme, promises to render solutions, reduce red tape and increase accountability in property matters. The initiative is the first of its kind in the country and has been previously achieved only in Brazil.

Though Bhoomi — Karnataka Government’s e-governance project — has been successful, there was no value addition in strict terms as it offers only an e-copy of the RTC (Record of Rights, Tenancy and Crops) document.

Speaking to The Hindu, M.N. Vidyashankar, Secretary, Information Technology and Biotechnology, said that the proposed Bhoomi-2, an Oracle-based software solution, would integrate the records and functioning of all departments which deal with land such as Survey and Settlement, Stamps and Registration and Revenue, among others.

“Today, agencies such as BDA, BMRDA, KIADB, etc., are all independent of Bhoomi. The software envisaged will provide detailed sketches of land all over the State and everything from notification to final deeds will be done by the system,” he explained.

Currently operating on software designed by the National Informatics Centre, Bangalore, the e-Governance Department will call for Expression of Interest from top players in the State for software customisation within the next two weeks. The project, which is funded by the Government of Karnataka, will be executed within two years. Currently under Bhoomi, RTCs of about 6.7 million landowners in 176 taluks have been computerised.

Once the sale deeds are made, the entire process, from registering with different agencies to identifying demarcations on online maps, will be software-enabled. “You are not required to go to Inspector-General for Survey and Settlement or wait around for notifications. It makes the process simple as well as accountable,” Mr. Vidyashankar asserted, while reiterating that it would certainly help reduce corruption.

The department is currently holding talks with stakeholders in various districts and taluks to formulate a plan. As many as 30,000 villages and two crore RTCs will be recorded on the database.

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digitised encumberance certificates

State plans to introduce digitised encumbrance certificates B.S. Satish Kumar, The Hindu
*It prevents scope for cheating of buyers and banks with wrong entries *Digitisation of encumbrance certificates may take a long time *It will reduce time taken for the issue of encumbrance certificates In a bid to prevent duping of property buyers and lending institutions with false encumbrance details, the Stamps and Registration Department is planning to introduce digitised encumbrance certificates. Inspector-General of Registration and Commissioner for Stamps H. Shashidhar told The Hindu that his department is planning to replace the present system of making manual entries in the encumbrance certificates with the digitised method. Such a system would prevent any scope for manipulation of details regarding encumbrance with wrongful entries. He said that there was a possibility of the property owners manipulating the entry in the encumbrance certificates in collusion with officials. The digitisation of the encumbrance certificates is expected to take a long time as it involves several complicated procedures. The Department is examining them. A clear picture in this regard is likely to emerge in about six months when the digitisation might be introduced on a pilot basis as part of the study to be undertaken by the department on ways and means of digitising encumbrance certificates. However, the department has not set any deadline for introducing the digitised system. To begin with, all the manual data from the records of the department would have to be digitised by feeding into the computer system. The department has to develop an appropriate software to support the digitisation process. The software and the computer applications would be integrated into other functions of the department related to the encumbrance issues. Mr. Shashidhar said the digitisation method would also reduce the time taken for the issue of encumbrance certificates. “All that people want is a transparent system which provides them clean and reliable data regarding encumbrance of property. Also there should not be any hassles, including the undue delay, in getting these certificates,” Mr. Shashidhar said and noted that his department was working towards meeting these aspirations of people. Sources in the government said that the digitised encumbrance certificates would mark another milestone in the ongoing revenue reforms in the State. This is because the process of digitisation would involve several reforms that would reduce the scope for manipulation of data regarding properties. The encumbrance details have achieved significance in the wake of the property rates shooting up sharply in urban areas, especially Bangalore. This has also increased the scope for frauds related to transactions of properties as well as mortgaging them with financial institutions.
great inititiative. i just hope the IG is not as wishy washy as the tone of the article suggests - no deadlines, we will see ... heaven hell or high water they've got to get this done.

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