1. Integrated Land Records & Village Map Computerization (BHUCHITRA)

The Land & Land Reforms Department :

The Department, a planning, monitoring and administrative apex level body, is situated in the state capital of Kolkata. Directorate of Land Records & Surveys a major directorate under the department maintains, develop land Records & Mouza Maps for the entire State. Through a very well knit state-wide organizational structure comprising 19 districts & Sub-District offices 341 Block level Land Reforms offices & 3354 Revenue Inspectors (R.I.) offices it reach out to deliver service to the citizens. Directorate has 341 Block Land Records Offices to implement the software to deliver services to the people. Way back in 1991 through a pilot project sanctioned by the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, computerization of land records started in a modest way.

The Project :  BHUCHITRA is the application software to manage the land records as well as map data for the state of West Bengal. Apart from creation and maintenance of land records database, this application integrates the vector digitized mouza map with the land record information. The software is capable to analyze the data to generate many kinds of reports that are of great value to the Department and beyond. BHUCHITRA is an upgraded version of BHUMI that was developed earlier without the features of mouza map information. The application provides plot excerpts along with the ROR.

The pilot project gave enough indication to the effect that, the task was gigantic in several accounts as follows :
(1) The volume of data at khatian and plot level is truly massive hence fund requirement is enormous.
(2) Age old Acts and Rules are quite rigid to accommodate changes
(3) Local language in maintenance of land records stands as a barrier
(4) Sensitivity of land records data is very high both legally and socially

However, all these barriers could be overcome by a concerted effort of all concerned organizations and an unprecedented advancement in technology. Fortunately, the Department has risen to the occasion to extend a collaborative support to NIC-WBSC for the development of appropriate technology and to a number of agencies for transformation of data to magnetic media. The project which started way back in 1991 on a modest scale on pilot basis in a single district, has emerged as a large project involving huge and sensitive, both socially and economically, data running into crores of plots and lakhs of Khatians and a massive transformation of the existing processes. The places of implementation run into 341 Block Offices spread across the length and breadth of the state.

The Present Status : Land records computerization in West Bengal started in 1991 and since then all the Land and Land Reforms Offices in 341 Blocks in the state have been made operational. Block level database of khatians and plots with due validation and checking done is available. Citizens are provided with computerized Records of Rights(RoR) on demand from all the Blocks of the state. Providing manual copy of certified copy has been legally banned in the State. On line mode of record correction is being implemented replacing post facto mode of record correction process. Paper based Mouza volumes are being sealed ensuring record correction digitally. Certified copy, plot information are being provided within 15 minutes. Replication of such system is on for other blocks. In one block BHUCHITRA has been implemented providing map details of the plot along with its ROR. Such integrated service has been much appreciated by the beneficiary citizen.

The Future Prospects : Registration of property handled by altogether a different department and being hitherto treated as separate activities is in the process of linking with land records activities. Thus mutation of records, an activity which is a source of pain to all and sundry irrespective of their social or financial status, could be done in a hassle free manner almost instantaneously. Efforts are also underway to put the entire database of land information including cadastral maps on the web as a process of forward integration towards e-governance.

2. Land Acquisition Information System

The Land Acquisition Office : The office of the Land & Land Reforms Department is the nodal department for administration and monitoring of Land Acquisition activities in the state in close co-ordination with the Requiring Bodies(RB) who require the land for various industries and developmental activities and the Land Acquisition Collector(LAC) at the District Level. The department has 18 number of Land Acquisition Collector offices all over the state where the Land Acquisition Information System (LAIS) is implemented for delivery of services to the citizens, Requiring Bodies and Land and Land Reforms Commissioner (LRC) and other departments. Publication of Notification, Publication of Declaration, Payment of Compensation money are some of the major services delivered by the LAC using the LAIS software.

The Project : LAIS has been developed in order to ensure speedy disposal of all pending and running Land Acquisition Cases and to help the Government to save huge amount of Establishment costs and the Interest Costs due to the delay in the Declaration and Payment of Award. The land owners get the Compensation Amount in due time from the Government. All the required reports are generated through the LAIS starting from Notification to Possession Certificate for Land Acquisition Cases under State Government and Central Government. The system stores the data relating to the Project details, Plot details and Owner details of the plots to be acquired. Reports relating to Notification, Declaration, Land Schedule, Estimate, Calculation Sheets, Award Preparations, Payment Notices, C.C. Vouchers and many other required reports and queries are available in the software.

The Present Status : LAIS software is successfully implemented in most of the Land Acquisition Offices of West Bengal during the year 2000. In the present system the users have to enter the plot details and land owners details of each plot from the Land Schedule available with the Block Land & Land Reforms Offices. The land valuation is also done manually by the LAC Offices using the data collected from the District Registration/ Addl District Registrar / Sub Registrar offices of the locality where the land is to be acquired. On the basis of these data land compensation amount is calculated for each land owners.

The Future Prospects : The LAIS software is proposed to be implemented in all of the Land Acquisition Offices in the state. Now most of the Block Land & Land Reforms Offices of the state have been implemented BHUMI software & most of the District Registrar/ADSR/SR Offices are being computerized with the CORD software and the Plot data, land owner data & land valuations data can be easily taken from the BHUMI and CORD software and integrated into the LAIS system for the effective and efficient delivery of the services as per the rules of Land Acquisition (New Approach).