After jumping multiple deadlines, the digitization of revenue records under Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme (DILRMP) has finally picked up pace in Kashmir. According to official figures, in Kashmir, 2, 60, 48,202 documents have been scanned. Similarly, 1, 11, 51, 050 documents have been quality checked.
Figures further reveal that 29,054 of old Mussavis have beenscanned while 12,258 old Mussavis have been quality checked.
There are total 6.6 crorerevenue documents and 55,000 revenue maps in the Union Territory of Jammu andKashmir which need to be scanned, digitized and updated.
“In Jammu, digitization is almost complete, but in Kashmirdivision due to uncertainty and other reasons the project has got delayed. Nowit has picked up pace and hopefully digitization will be completed withinstipulated time,” said a senior official of Revenue Department.
DILMRP, a centrally funded project, was started in Jammu andKashmir in 2015 for having access to transparent land records.
The major components of the programme include computerizationof land records, computerization of registration and survey/re-survey andupdating of the survey and settlement record.
The twin capitals of J&K were taken first fordigitization. The programme involves three phases. Phase-I of the programmeincludes Jammu and Srinagar. Phase-II involves Poonch, Ramban, Baramulla,Anantnag, Udhampur, Doda, Bandipora and Rajouri. In phase-III, Kathua, Kulgam,Shopian, Budgam, Reasi, Ganderbal, Pulwama, Kupwara, Kishtwar and Samba are tobe taken.
The project aimed to provide computerized management of theland records and their digital maintenance would make it easier and quicker toobtain updated land revenue records. The officials blame shortage of manpower,lesser number of working days, higher amount of work and other reasons for slowprogress.
Phase-I was to be completed by March 2019, the deadline waslater extended by former Governor of erstwhile State of J&K, Satya PalMalik to June 2019. However, the first phase could not be completed during thestipulated time. The whole project in J&K, involving all the three phases,needs to be completed by March 31, 2022.
During a recent review meeting of Revenue Department, Advisorto Governor had directed all the concerned Deputy Commissioners to strictlyfollow the deadlines and complete the digitization process at the earliest sothat all scanned documents would be updated.
Meanwhile, Union Ministry has directed the RevenueDepartment to accelerate the progress of various components of the programme.