The history of India with the concept of ‘Zamindari’ trails back to a long time in history. From the time when the Imperialist East India Company, introduced the Zamindari system in 1793, there have been several disputes regarding land ownership, land revenues, and land taxes. After Independence, the Zamindari Abolition Act was introduced in the year 1950 by the government of India. 

After that, land ownership in India is primarily established through a registered and recorded sale deed. Physical maintenance of land records is a complicated process. With time, the Central Government introduced and implemented the National Land Records Modernisation Programme (now known as Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme). Under this Programme, they seek to achieve complete computerization of the property registration process and digitization of all land records. However, this has not completely led to the end of disputes over matters of the land. We have all come across news articles that speak of instances wherein farmers or people have been robbed of their rights over land. 

Did you know that nearly two-thirds of all pending cases in Indian courts are related to property disputes? According to NITI Aayog, such property cases take more than 20 years to settle. That is when the need for transparency, accessibility, and digitization of land records comes into the picture. Let’s look at why it is a necessary practice: 

  • It can help speed up the process of land acquisition.
  • Promote transparency for land record management.
  • Easier online approvals of plans and occupancy certificates.
  • Clarity over ownership status of lands.
  • Easier verification of authenticity for land buyers.

Did you know that the Government of Odisha joined into this and made all land records digital in the year 2008? The official online portal for land records in Odisha is called ‘Bhulekh’. The term ‘Bhulekh’ is a Sanskrit term which means ‘Bhu Alekh’. In English, it translates to Bhu (meaning Land) and Alekh (meaning record).

Using the platform ‘Bhulekh Odisha’, one can access information regarding:

  • Records of Rights (ROR): While buying or selling any property or land, it is important for the buyer and seller to know the history and records of that land to avoid getting stuck in any fraudulent transactions. Many times, multiple people have ownership rights upon a land. With Bhulekh Odisha, citizens can enter accurate information and obtain the ‘Record of Rights’ statement.  
  • Bhu Naksha:
    The term ‘Naksha’ translates to ‘Map’ in English. With Bhulekh Odisha, one can access the map of any particular district of the state. The scope for introducing the ‘Bhu Naksha’ system was to incorporate and facilitate an end to end solution for cadastral mapping. Presently, these maps are maintained within village boundaries. Check out the Bhu Naksha user guide here.  
  • State Statistics:
    For information on the statistics of state demographics, ‘Bhulekh Odisha’ provides a ‘State Statistics’ section, wherein you can find certain information such as the number of districts, number of Tahasils, Number of RI circles, Number of Khatiyans, Number of plots, Number of villages and the Number of Tenants. 
  • Tahasil Information:
    The term ‘Tahasildar’ means ‘revenue officer’. ‘Tahsil’ refers to the particular administrative division of the district which comes under the particular revenue officer. In certain land-related transactions, it is important to have the access to the Tahasil information regarding that particular region. You no longer need to rush to Government offices to verify and seek this information. ‘Bhulekh Odisha’ lets you access the Tahasil information through their portal.

Don’t you think this is a great initiative by the Government? What are your thoughts on the transparency and accessibility of such records and documents? Have you come across more such initiatives where the Government promotes accessibility and transparency of information for citizens?