President Droupadi Murmu presented the Bhoomi Samman awards to nine state secretaries and 68 district collectors for their achievements in the implementation of the Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme (DILRMP).

Importance of digitisation process of land records

• Land, a finite natural resource, is not only the main source of livelihood of the majority of rural population but is also connected with the pride, emotions, and socio-economic values of the land owners and as such the land record showing their rights over land has immense value. 

• While the various welfare services and benefits of the government schemes primarily depend on the land records, a person, to avail these services/benefits based on land rights and also for transactions of land, has to visit various offices and places several times. 

• In our country, land administration and its management are diverse on account of language, culture, regions, topography, nomenclature and socio-economic factors. 

• In this milieu, digitisation of land records with accuracy and updated status and access to these by the public in easy and online mode becomes very important. 

• The land and its management is under the State List of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution.

• The Union government has always been assisting the states/UTs by way of financial assistance and technical support to digitised the land record and place the same in the public domain.

• Digitisation process of land records and registration will help mitigate the huge pendency of court cases involving land disputes, cutting down the loss to the country’s economy due to projects being stalled over such litigations.

• It is expected to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of various services and benefits of the programmes of central and state departments related to agriculture and farmer welfare, chemical and fertilizer, public distribution system (PDS), panchayati raj and financial institutions.

• Union Minister of State for Panchayati Raj Kapil Moreshwar Patil said digitisation of land records have enabled people to get loans against their property, which was earlier not easily available.

• Union Minister of State for Rural Development Faggan Singh Kulaste said that digitisation of more than 94 per cent of land records have been achieved already and the rest will be completed before the deadline of March 31, 2024.

Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme (DILRMP)

The digitisation of land records initially started in the 1980s. There were two schemes under the Department of Land Resources (DoLR). They were:

i) Computerisation of Land Records (CLR).

ii) Strengthening of Revenue Administration and Updating of Land Records (SRA & ULR).

• In 2008, these two schemes were merged into one modified scheme in the shape of National Land Records Modernization Programme (NLRMP), combining the key components of the two schemes and adding new components.

• Later, this scheme was made part of Digital India bouquet as a Central Sector Scheme and revamped and restructured as Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme (DILRMP) with 100 per cent central grant with effect from April 1, 2016.

• The scheme has now further been extended up to 2025-26 (co-terminus with Fifteenth Finance Commission) with the overall aim to place all the information available in respect of a piece of land at one place and make them easily accessible to the public trough Integrated Land Information Management System (ILIMS).

• The main objective of the DILRMP is to modernise the land records system in the country and to build up an integrated land information management system with up-to-date and real time land records on a continuous basis. 

• For this purpose, the two main systems of land records management and registration were integrated with the help of modern technology. 

Components of DILRMP:

• Computerisation of land records.

• Survey/Re-Survey and updating of the survey & settlement records.

• Computerisation of registration.

• Modern record rooms

• Training and capacity building.

• Core GIS

• Legal changes

• Programme management.

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