Kerala has done pioneering work in taking up digital land survey: Manoj Joshi

Kerala has done pioneering work in taking up digital survey of land and notifying the records, Manoj Joshi, Secretary, Department of Land Resources, Government of India, has said.

Speaking at Bhoomi national conclave on digital land survey on Thursday, Mr. Joshi lauded integration of registration system and land records in two villages in the State on a pilot basis to avoid delays.

Mr. Joshi pointed out that the Kerala model was unique because the State had completed survey in around 20% of its villages using 100% new technology such as ETS (electronic total station) and DGPS (Differential Global Positioning System) and integrated its registration system with pre-mutation sketches so that maps did not get outdated in future.

Yet to begin

The survey was under way in some other villages, but there were nearly 1,100 villages where it was yet to begin. Instead of taking up the survey in the remaining villages in phases, Kerala should complete it at one go to prevent political and administrative risks associated with change of government. The Union government would provide funding, Mr. Joshi said.

“We are launching a new programme of taking up 20% of the country’s agricultural land for a fresh survey as done through NAKSHA for urban areas,” he said.

In India, separate databases were maintained for registration, buildings by local bodies, and land records. However, instead of three systems that communicated using application programming interface, an integrated system like in some European countries was being piloted in Tamil Nadu. The Union government was in talks with Chandigarh too to pilot it in some villages, he said.

Kunal Satyarthi, Joint Secretary, Department of Land Resources, Government of India, and Thomas Harring, group executive vice president, Hexagon AB, spoke.