LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

TERM PAPER
ON
E.COM

Topic: BHOOMI PROJECT IN

KARNATKA

DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT
(LOVELY SCHOOL OF BUSINESS)

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:

MRS SHAINA DHINGRA HARDEEP
KAUR(1804)
(10808495)
 ANIL
KUMAR(1804)
(10811617)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This report bears the imprint of many persons without

whom it would have been difficult to give it a concrete

shape.

We are indebted to MRS SHAINA (Lecturers, of E.COM)

under whose supervision and guidance. We are able

to complete my term paper report successful.

She took keen interest in providing us knowledge

about the working of the unit as a whole.

We are thankful to our parents and lovely professional

university who have been the main guiding and

motivating force in our lives.

HARDEEP KAUR

(10808495)
 ANIL

KUMAR (10811617)

CONTENTS
• Introduction
• objective
• Goals
• Features
• Overview

• Overall Description
 Goals of Proposed System
 Background
 Highlights of overall project
 History of land records
 Components
 Committees

• Digitisation of land record

• Benefits of bhoomi project
• Problems in manual system
• Earliar efforts towards digitisation
• Breakthrough
 • Planning and technologies
• Constraints and implementing challanges

• Recommendations

• Bibliography

Introduction
Bhoomi (meaning land) is the project of on-line delivery and management of land
records in Karnataka. It provides transparency in land records management with better
citizen services and takes discretion away from civil servants at operating levels. The
Revenue Department in Karnataka, with the technical assistance from National Informatics
Centre (NIC), Bangalore, has built and operationalised the BHOOMI system throughout
the state. The BHOOMI has computerized 20 million records of land ownership of 6.7
million farmers in the state.

BHOOMI has reduced the discretion of public officials by introducing provisions for
recording a mutation request online. Farmers can now access the database and are
empowered to follow up. In the BHOOMI project, a printed copy of the RTC can be
obtained online by providing the name of the owner or plot number at computerized land
record kiosks in 177 taluk offices, for a fee of Rs.15. A second computer screen faces the
clients to enable them to see the transaction being performed. A farmer can check the
status of a mutation application on Touch Screen Kiosks. If the revenue inspector does not
complete the mutation within 45 days, a farmer can now approach a senior officer person
with their grievance .

Operators of the computerized system are made accountable for their decisions and actions
by using a bio-login system that authenticates every Login through a thumbprint. A log is
maintained of all transactions in a session.

The new system has brought about a sea change in the way land records are maintained
and administered in the state. The system has not only simplified the process of record
keeping but has also provided many collateral benefits. This governance model has proven
to be financially self-sustainable. It has become a trendsetter for e-Governance projects in
the state as well as other parts of the country.

In the next phase of BHOOMI, the ‘LAND RECORDS ON WEB’ has be established
wherein, all the taluk databases are getting uploaded to a web-enabled central database so
as to allow the private agencies to set up the village – level kiosk to download the land
records documents at the village and issue to the farmers. In this Private Public
Participation (PPP) model, all the stakeholders will be benefited in land records delivery.

Under this prestigious Bhoomi E-Governance project of the Government all 20 million
land records of 6.7 million land owners in 176 taluks of Karnataka have been
computerised. This system works with the software called "BHOOMI" designed fully in-
house by National Informatics Center, Bangalore. While the project is largely funded by
Government of India; some critical components of this project are funded by State
Government.

Objectives and Goals

 To facilitate easy maintenance and prompt updatation of land records.

 To make land records tamper proof.

 To provide farmers easy access to their land records.

 To create and to construct databases of land revenue, cropping pattern, land use,
etc.

 To utilize the data for planning and formulating development programmes.

 To enable usage of this database by courts, banks, private organizations and

Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
Important Features of BHOOMI
"Bhoomi" is a very comprehensive software designed by NIC, Bangalore. This software
provides for printing of land records as and when required. It incorporates process of
online updation to ensure that the RTCs provided to the farmers is in sync with the time.
The manual land records in operationalised taluks have been declared illegal. All the
mutations to the land records database are done on the computer itself so as to ensure that
data on computer remain current with time.

It incorporates the state of the art bio-logon metrics system from Compaq, which
authenticates various users on the Bhoomi software on the basis of fingerprints. This
ensures that no body can hack the system by imitating other users. The replacement of
password security system by fingerprint authentication system would go a long way to
ensure that database are free from any hacking and that the non-repudiation system is in
place. This software also has the provision of scanning of original mutation orders of the
revenue inspector (who is the authorised person to pass orders in the mutations in the field)
and notices served on interested parties. Both documents are scanned to ensure that not
only responsibility can be fixed on Officials by showing the original documents signed by
them but also to ensure that the intestered particies do not claim in the court that they were
not served with the notice before effecting the mutation.

The software enables the administrators to generate various reports based on type of soil,
land holding size, type of crops grown etc. This information would enable administrators to take
informed policy decision.

• This software provides for printing of land records as and when required.
• It incorporates process of online updation to ensure that the RTCs provided to the
farmers is in sync with the time.
• All the mutations to the land records database are done on the computer itself so as
to ensure that data on computer remain current with time.
• It incorporates the state of the art bio-logon metrics system from Compaq, which
authenticates various users on the Bhoomi software on the basis of
fingerprints.This ensures that no body can hack the system by imitating other users.
• This software also has the provision of scanning of original mutation orders of the
revenue inspector (who is the authorised person to pass orders in the mutations in
the field) and notices served on interested parties. Both documents are scanned to
ensure that not only responsibility can be fixed on Officials by showing the original
documents signed by them but also to ensure that the intestered particies do not
claim in the court that they were not served with the notice before effecting the
mutation.
 • The software enables the administrators to generate various reports based on type
of soil, land holding size, type of crops grown etc. This information would enable
administrators to take informed policy decision.

Important Events Regarding project

. The then Hon'ble Chief Minister of Karnataka Shri
S.M.Krishna officially inaugrated the first Land records Kiosk in his home town Maddur
on 6th February 2001. Banglore district's first Computerised taluk Bangalore (South) Taluk
was inaugurated byShri Venkaiah Naidu, the then Hon'ble Union Minister for Rural
Development and Shri S.M.Krishna, the then Hon'ble Chief Minister of Karnataka on
13th July 2001 on the day when Vidhana Soudha (the Government headquarter building)
celebrated its 50th anniversary.

Background
Sixty-six percent of the population of Karnataka resides in rural areas where the main
occupation is agriculture. About 6.7 million farmers own 20 million land holdings. The
crucial document which records various parameters and information pertaining to land-
holding is the Record of Right Tenancy and Cultivation (RTC). Earlier in the manual
system, these records were maintained by 9,000 Village Accountants (VAs or village
revenue officials) who served farmers in about 27,000 villages. The RTC is required for
land transactions, to obtain crop loans, other loans and concessions linked to the size of the
land holding. The manual system of maintaining RTCs was exploitative as the VAs were
not easily available and bribes were often extracted. Since the records were not open for
public scrutiny, there was considerable scope for manipulation. The land records are the
most important testimony of rights to land owners in the huge agro-economy of India. VAs
held a monopoly on all revenue records and were frequently involved in harassing citizens,
tampering with the records and other corrupt practices. The Ministry of Rural
Development has been providing funds to state governments for computerization of land
records since 1988-89. In Karnataka, data entry work started in 1995, but up to 1999 there
were few concrete benefits. In 1999-2000, modifications were made in the software and all
the databases were updated when the Bhoomi project was launched.

Highlights of Bhoomi

Fully online system to carry out mutations on land records data

Finger print biometrics authentication to ensure fool proof

authentication system and to enforce the concept of non-
repudiation.

Facility to scan the field mutation order passed by revenue

authorities and the notice served on the public.

Land record centre in each taluk office for public interface.

 Syncronises with the regular field work done by Village
Accountants and Revenue Inspector.

Provision for interfacing of Touch Screen Kiosk at taluk office.

First in First in mutation process thereby eliminating any

favourism.

The above features would help in bringing total transparency in land records
administration with added advantage of security and reliability

Committees
Government has constituted the fallowing two committees for implementation of
Computerisation of Land Records in the State.

Bhoomi Advisory Committee

This committee will looks into improvement required in the Bhoomi Software. To know
the member in the committee.

State Level Committe

This committee will review the Progress of the Project in Karnataka and decide about its
expansion & broadbanding. To know the member in the committee.

Digitisation of Land Records: Bhoomi Project

Bhoomi project is an attempt made by Karnataka State Government for Computerisation of

Land Records. This project is sponsored jointly by Ministry of Rural Development,
Government of India and State Government of Karnataka.
Under the Bhoomi E-Governance project all 20 million land records of 6.7 million land
owners in 176 taluks of Karnataka have been computerised.This system works with the
software called "BHOOMI" designed fully in-house by National Informatics Center,
Bangalore.

Components of Bhoomi
The scheme includes the following Components.

The computer centre where mutation and updation are done in

online fashion. It includes finger print authentication and
scanning of important documents to ensure robust and secured
system. Most of the components of the Computer Centre are
funded under the Central Scheme.

Land Records kiosk from where the farmers can collect the copy
of their record by paying Rs.15. They can also lodge request for
mutation to their land records . the Kiosk is fully funded by State
Government.
 Touch Screen Kiosk where farmers can see their land related
information without anybody’s intervention or help.

There are 3 main components in Bhoomi system -

 • The computer centre where mutation and updation are done in online fashion. It
includes finger print authentication and scanning of important documents to ensure
robust and secured system. Most of the components of the Computer Centre are
funded under the Central Scheme.
• Land Records kiosk from where the farmers can collect the copy of their record by
paying Rs.15. They can also lodge request for mutation to their land records . the
Kiosk is fully funded by State Government.
• Touch Screen Kiosk where farmers can see their land related information without
anybody's intervention or help.

Benifits of Bhoomi
Farmers

Farmers can quickly get their land records from Kiosks and are
protected from harassment and extortion. As against time delay of
3 to 30 days they now get their records in less than 2 minutes. No
overhead cost is to be incurred. No application is required to be
submitted at the kiosk. The records are authentic and legible. Use
of biometrics authentication system for updation of records have
freed farmers from the worry of probable manipulation of their
records by some times some unscrupulous officials.

They can lodge application for mutation (change in land title) to

their land records at the mutation kiosks, get acknowledgement
for the same and can monitor the progress using touch screen
kiosks available in some Bhoomi centers. They would then get
their updated land record in a fixed time frame without the need
of approaching any authority. As against earlier time of 70-200
days, mutation would now require less than 35 days.

Farmers can also get the official status report of their request for
mutation which would let them know the stage at which their
request is pending. This status report would help them in
enforcing their right of getting the record mutated in the
prescribed time.

Access to farm credit would now be less cumbersome. Online

connectivity to banks would ensure farm credit to farmers in less
 than 5 days as against 25-30 days in manual system.

It would be easier for the farmers to pursue land related litigation

in the court.

Benefit to Administrators and Others

Administrators

Easy maintenance and updation of land records documents. In

manual system land records updation used to get delayed by as
high as 1-2 years in some cases. Now it would always be in sync
with time.

Support for development programs, based on valuable land

records data like various crops grown in a village or a sub district,
the fertilizers and pesticide requirement in a season etc to
Departments like Agriculture, Industries and Planning. Such data
in earlier system became available to departments only after 2-3
years. It is now available almost immediately.

Accurate and timely preparation of annual records like land

revenue etc.,

Monitoring of Government lands and prevention of their

encroachments. Lack of monitoring had costed a reported loss of
Rs.25 billion to State Government by way of officials tampering
with records.

Judicial Administration

Courts would be able to make use of land record database for

adjudicating various civil disputes related to ownership,
possession and cultivation in various courts.

Financial Institutions
 Online connectivity to financial institutions would help banks in
planning for their farm credit related activities. In manual system
they worked on 2 years old data or just guessed the farm sector
requirement

Online connectivity would also helps banks to ensure that

revenue administration is indicating bank's charge on land
records of such farmers who have availed crop loans.

Facilitates creating change on land of those farmers who take

crop loans.

Private Sector

Private sector had complained of absence of crop and land data

for their planning purpose.

Bhoomi data would help supplier of various agricultural inputs

like seeds, pesticide, fertilizers etc. to plan their activities.

Details of irrigated lands and pattern of land holding could be

used by private sector for more informed decision making. In
manual system such data was just not available.

Problems of Manual System

Opaque system

The manual system of land records maintenance was highly opaque. 200 lakh records were
maintained by over 9000 Village Accountants. The sub district office did not have any
updated copy of such records. Thus a situation of virtual monopoly of Village Accountants
over these records was prevailing for many years. Records were not open to public scrutiny
and were updated many a times only on various considerations.

Prone to manipulations
Manual record administration was prone to manipulation. There have been large instances
of Government land being shown in the name of private parties. In fact, in Bangalore
division alone 25 billion worth of Government land had been manipulated and shown in
the name of private influential persons. Opaque manual system facilitates such
manipulation very easily by unscrupulous officials.

Harassment and Extortion

Many a times farmers faced harassment and extortion for not only provision of land
records to them by the village officials but also for processing requests for change in land
title.

Delay in delivery of land records

On many occasions such delay was unintentional. Even if a Village Accountant was
willing to give such records in time, he was not available when farmers wanted him most
as he was manning more than 4-5 villages. Therefore, there was no certainty about timely
availability of such records when a farmer required them.

Cumbersome mutation process

The process of mutation (change in land title) was very cumbersome. Applications were
being given to village officials who virtually enjoyed discretion of either processing them
or not. As records were maintained in decentralised manner, there was no reporting
mechanism available at sub district level about the pendency of such applications with
Village Accountants. Lack of any monitoring mechanism in manual system made farmers
amenable to all pressures from hierarchy of the Department.

Lack of timely data for planning purpose

Land Records contain various useful data like soil type, Irrigation details, trees, crops
grown, crop yield etc. All such data is very valuable for various administrative purposes.
As data was manually maintained, it was not possible to collate and analyse such data
resulting into mine of such useful data not being used in any meaningful way.

Cumbersome crop loan mechanism

Banks often asked various land records before lending crop loans to farmers. Farmers in
turn had to hunt village officials with no guarantee that banks would not ask for any more
records. This made crop loaning process prone to delay and resulted into harassment to
farmers.

Delay in disposal of civil litigations

The courts often required various land records for disposing land based civil litigations
(which formed more than 70% of total litigations). Records were not forthcoming from
Village Accountants easily and in time resulting into delay in disposal of civil litigations.
Farmers had to often spend, in many cases more than 5-10 years for disposal of their land
litigation cases in absence of these records.

Earlier Efforts Towards Computerisation

The federal government, releasing the importance of well maintained and updated land
records database, launched the scheme of Computerisation of Land Records in the year
1991. Gulbarga district was one of the pilot district chosen by the federal government
amongst 24 districts in the country.

By 1996, project for Computerisation of Land Records was extended to cover all the
districts of the state. While the funds under the project were sanctioned for capturing of the
legacy land records data in digital form, there was not enough clarity about its validation
and subsequent updation. No funds were allocated for sub district computers where the
data could be updated. The project, therefore, fizzled out without achieving its objective.

A New Approach
The reasons for failure of the earlier attempts of Computerisation of Land Records were
studied in detail with reference to Karnataka. The following reasons emerged out of this
study.

Lack of Clarity

The federal government did not have the clarity about strategy to be adopted for
implementation of the scheme. It was not clearly spelt out in the scheme as to what has to
be done with the digitised data, how would that be updated with time? How would these
records be distributed to the farmers? What would be done with the manual records.

Lack of Involvement

Perhaps the lack of clarity led to lack of involvement of the Revenue Department officers
and district administration in the project. The lack of training of Village Accountants on
data entry process led to wrong and defective database. Further validation of data was not
properly done leading to errors in database. The printed records were distributed to the
farmers in some of the districts without paper validation and then updation or any use of
the database forgotten about. The distribution was itself regarded as Computerisation of
Land Records .
Breakthrough
Then came the breakthrough. The State Government mandated that Bhoomi -
Computerisation of Land Records would have to be undertaken & finished in all sub
districts by March 2002. It was also decided to fully support development of a citizen
centric land records system even if it meant substantial investment by State Government
for those components of the project which were not being funded by federal government.
This political mandate was backed by full administration efforts at all levels.

The result is evolution of a transparent and effective land record delivery system which
fully addresses the insecurities and concerns of the farmers and which is now in operation
in nearly all sub districts of Karnataka.

Stepping Stone
Phase 1 - End of March 2001

Captured about 50 lakhs RTCs data of 50 sub districts on digital

media

Operationalise the scheme in these 50 sub districts.

Trained the revenue staff upto Village Accountant level on data

entry operation - total number 8000

Phase 2 - End of March 2002

Capture the data on 15 million RTCs of remaining 127 sub districts

in digital form.

Operationalised the scheme in remaining 126+1 sub districts.

One of the Kiosk is being used for additional cross-selling

initiatives.
 Scheme decentralised to 5 Sub taluks (Sub-Sub districts) on
expermental basis.

Phase 3 - April 2002 to March 2003

Interlinking of sub district level sytems to district data centres and

to web enable this data.

To use these data centres for disaster recovery.

To manage the sub district servers centrally from the district

centres.

To provide connectivity to Banks and Courts.

To decentralise the scheme to about 100 sub-subdistricts with

private participation.

To broad band the Bhoomi kiosks and use these for various cross
selling initiatives like provision of weather details, details of
beneficiaries of government schemes etc.

Phase 4 - From March 2003 onwards

Interlinking of district level data banks to the state level data

warehouse.

To provide EIS, GIS and other MIS data using multidimensional

RTC hyper cubes.

Planning
 A pilot project for the computerization of land records in
Karnataka started in 1989, initiated by GoI. By 1996, the project for computerization of
land records for all districts in the state was sanctioned. The aim was to create computer
records from the manual data. However, since no provision was made to install computers
at sub-district level, online updating of these records was not possible. Thus these projects
failed to achieve all of the above objectives. The Bhoomi project was launched in the state
of Karnataka in 2000 with the aim of computerizing the system for maintaining land
records, thereby permiting online updating. In the first phase, the project was implemented
as a pilot in five talukas in the district; and later rolled out to all 177 talukas. The required
software was designed and developed in-house by the National Information Centre (NIC, a
Govenment of India organization).

Services Provided
At the kiosks, there are two-computer screens, one of which performs the operation and the
other which shows the transaction being performed to the clients. Just by providing the
name of the owner or the plot number, one can collect copies of the land parcel. Farmers
can file online requests at these kiosks for a change of ownership, sale or inheritance.
These are important transactions for initiating the mandatory process known as mutation
for effecting necessary changes in the RTC. Each request is assigned a number, and notices
are then generated from Bhoomi, which are served by the VA, on interested parties. After
waiting for a statutory period of 30 days from the day of serving the notice, the Revenue
Inspector (RI) passes the mutation order in a register maintained for this purpose. The
mutation order passed by the RI is processed in Bhoomi and a new RTC is generated, duly
incorporating the details of the new owner. As a part of this process, the mutation order is
scanned to take care of non-repudiation. While the mutation records are pending for orders
of the RI a farmer can trace the status of the application, using the number provided to
them.

Target Group and Intended Beneficiaries

All citizens of the state (residing in rural and urban areas) are the target groups and
intended beneficiaries.

Institutional Arrangements
An additional secretary in the Revenue Department (Land Reforms) acts as the project
manager, assisted by the Senior Technical Director, NIC (Technical Manager). At the
district level, the leadership role is given to the Deputy Commissioner. The administrative
responsibilities were given to the Assistant Commissioners, technical responsibilities to
District Information Officers of the NIC, and implementation and monitoring tasks
assigned to the consultants appointed by the Bhoomi project. Revenue Shrestedars (Deputy
Tahsildars) were made project leaders at taluka level, working under the direction of the
Tahsildar. At the grassroot level there are revenue inspectors, village accountants and data
entry operators. Except for the 28 consultants (one for each district and one for the state
headquarters) appointed on an annual contract by the Bhoomi project, all tasks have
clearly defined roles and responsibilities assigned to existing government staff. At the
taluka level, one of the three existing Deputy Tahsildars are made responsible for Bhoomi.
Five VAs were given training and assigned the job of manning the Bhoomi counter and
updating records.

Technologies
All 177 talukas are provided with one computer with 64 MB RAM (with two monitors),
one printer, one scanner, one UPS, one battery for back-up and a generator. The computer
at the counter is connected to a a LAN and the server room has biometric equipment for
fingerprints, two client machines for data updation and one printer. The front-end is written
in Visual Basic v6 and the database in SQL server v7.0. The Operating System is Windows
NT.

Primary Access Points

Bhoomi centres are operational in all 177 taluka headquarters of the state, providing a
primary access point for all citizens. Each Bhoomi counter has two computer screens, one
for the counter operator and another for the user. Some centres have touch screen kiosks as
well.

Capacity Building
Rs 12.8 million were spent on capacity development of government officials. Intensive
training was conducted for bringing about changes in attitude amongst departmental staff:
1,200 VAs were given seven-day training, consisting of 10 hours a day on the basics of
computers and the Bhoomi software; 108 VAs were given two-month intensive training on
hardware and networking; 500 Tahsildars and 900 Shirastedars were given seven-day
training on computer operations and the Bhoomi system; and 600 VAs were given two-day
training on data entry operations. Twelve state-level seminars were organized for 1,200
senior and middle-level officers. Four divisional-level workshops were organized to train
800 officials. To clarify various technical and administrative issues, more than 150
circulars were issued and compiled into seven compendia. Also a Bhoomi-Help Manual
was distributed at the sub-district level. A computer-training lab was also set up.

Constraints and Implementation Challenges

Many constraints and challenges were faced at the time of implementation. There were 20
million land records of a dynamic nature, which had to be updated at least once a year. The
manual copies of land records had a number of inaccuracies and inconsistencies. The
question of data integrity became a major issue, as they became more visible once they
came into the public domain rather than under the monopoly of VAs. The data structures in
the state were not uniform. Data were kept in multiple languages across the state. Data
entry operations by multiple agencies had to be closely monitored, as there was an urgent
need to create a robust process to facilitate data validation by the owners. There was huge
resistance to change from an exploitative system of land records which had operated for
more than 300 years. It was necessary to change the mindset of 10,000 revenue officials,
VAs and RIs, and 1,500 officials from other departments. The revenue officials involved in
the project had no exposure to technology. There was an issue of lack of public acceptance
of the deliverables of the project (such as trust in the legal validity of the computer
printouts) amongst 6.7 million farmers. The project in the initial phase was supposed to be
operated from the taluka level instead of village level, which required change in the
processes and procedures. Online updating of the system had to be built in to obliterate
manual updating of records. The issue of manual records had to be discarded, which was a
major procedural shift. The mutation system had to be robust and quick once it was
decided that it would go online. The geographic expanse of the project - 27 districts, 177
talukas and 27,000 villagers - provided a challenge in the form of coordination of
implementation and monitoring. There were major power cuts (six to10 hours in a day)
which also hindered the project. This compelled project managers to buy UPSs, batteries
and generator sets in each taluka.

Project Outcomes

The generation time of the RTC has been reduced from one to30 days to five to15 minutes.
Similarly, the mutation process cycle time has decreased from 90-180 days to 30-45 days.
Crop record updating has increased to 80-100 percent from 50-70 percent. Around 12
million users have used Bhoomi since its inception, which has resulted in the collection of
Rs 180 million as user charges. Presently, 0.7 million people are using Bhoomi centres
every month and monthly user charges collected amount to around Rs 10 million.

Key Lessons Learnt

Land registration is a major requirement of Indian villagers. The successful

implementation of the project has proved that citizens are ready to pay increased user
charges to get certified copies of their records. It has also emphasized the point that even
huge and confusing databases can be integrated in a simple and user-friendly program.
Another key lesson is that the payment of user charges is necessary for the financial
viability of the project. Actually, land records can become a core e-government service for
any CIC or a telecentre, supporting other developmental activities.

Sustainability

The project operates a financially sustainable model. It has recovered Rs 180 million in
three years against the investment of Rs 244 million. In-house capacity building has
provided skilled manpower from within the organization. The constant modification of
software ensured long-term functioning of the system.
Replication and Scaling Up

Computerization of the land records is an ongoing GoI programme, which has been
continuing over the last decade. Besides Karnataka, other Indian states like Tamil Nadu,
Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra have also shown similar success in
land record computerization projects.

It is planned to scale this project up to at least three villages in every taluka (around 500
kiosks). On a pilot basis, seven talukas have been linked to the State Data Centre. There is
a plan to create a network of all 500 kiosks in villages and 177 existing taluka centres.
Presently, a few centres have been provided with touch screen computers, but it is planned
to provide this facility to all centres. On a pilot basis, two villages - Arudhi and Sassalu in
Doddaballapura taluka- have been linked to taluka centres through mobile wireless sets
(using Dak Net ). Also, 200 Simputers have been provided to VAs in five districts of
North Karnataka to be used for updating the crops in land records. It is envisaged to scale
up the Simputer (or some more cost-effective hand held device) to all 10,000 VAs of the
state to integrate the back-end processing.
 Recommendations

It is important to convert the land

records into measurements of hectares and boundaries rather than plots provided in a
matrix (in metres). The Bhoomi project still depicts areas in guntas and acres, and
boundaries in feet. There is no provision of maps through the Bhoomi kiosks as it is still in
the experimental stage of scanning or digitizing village maps. The farmers have to depend
on VAs for maps of their land records. There is still a problem in Unicode standardization
of Kannada fonts. At present, Bhoomi is providing only land records with entries after
1999 because the records before 1999 have not been updated and validated. For the growth
of the project, it is recommended that all land records prior to 1999 be updated and
validated as well. Villagers have to walk 10-35 km to the taluka headquarters to get
computerized copies of land records. It is further recommended the project be extended to
remote villages, so that the villagers are provided with closer access. The project is over-
dependent on proprietary software (Oracle and Microsoft) and it is necessary to shift to
open source software like LINUX to cut costs. Non-agricultural land data is still not
entered into the databases. Citizens in need of records pertaining to non-agricultural land
have to depend on the manual system. This should be rectified. Bar coding of land records
can also be used to improve their validity. Due to the manual system adopted by VAs to
update crops in the land records (twice in the year), there are huge delays in updating the
records. It is recommended that these records be updated using cost-effective hand held
devices which can be synchronized with server databases to save time.
Bibliography
http://www.it.iitb.ac.in

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