Tamil Nilam is the Tamil Nadu government’s land administration and management system. Tamil Nilam has been implemented in all rural Taluks of Tamil Nadu. Touch screen kiosks to disseminate information related to land records have been implemented in 127 Taluks. This G2C initiative has been a phenomenal success both in terms of revenue and reach.
The Andhra Pradesh government uses a system called ‘Integrated Land Information System’ (ILIS) for it’s land records. ILIS also facilitates the crucial interaction between various government departments like Revenue, Survey, Settlement and Land Records. The Karnataka government has implemented ‘Bhoomi’ which functions along the same lines while the ‘Mahabhulekh’ is the Maharashtra government’s land records system.
As in the case of the land records system, each state has it’s own system for a process. These systems provide nearly the same functionality.
The objectives for developing a land information management system in all states are similar. They include
– digitising land information like survey number, sub-division number
– capturing, maintaining & updation of mutation process
– interaction between various government departments to facilitate flow of information
– an MIS system for the various departments involved
But, each state has spent valuable resources in developing their own applications, effectively re-inventing the wheel. Furthermore, there are states like Arunachal Pradesh which do not have their own e-system for land records.
The need of the hour is that the centre undertakes an initiative where projects that have been successful at the state level are replicated in other states that do not have a computerized system for the process. The object oriented paradigm, if used, can ease the process of customization for different states including change in language of presentation. As an extension of this, all software developed for e-governance should incorporate elements which will ensure a smooth path for other states or government agencies that may wish to replicate the application.
This is what the National e-Governance Plan seeks to achieve. The project of computerization of land records, under NeGP, undertaken by the Department of Land Resources under the Ministry of Rural Development is now a pan-India effort. The Andhra Pradesh government’s CARD program (ComputerAided Administration of Registration Department) has been adopted in the Horizontal Transfer Program of the NeGP for it’s best practices and a number of states have completed the pilot project.
The NeGP aims to make all government services available to the common man in his locality through common service delivery outlets. The program aims to achieve this by building a core IT infrastructure setup and by implementing certain ‘Mission Mode Projects’ both in the centre as well as the states.
The NeGP envisages the following:
– Deployment of about 28 projects in ‘Mission’ mode including Banking and Income Tax
– Creation of a state wide network called SWAN for reliable connectivity between the different entities involved
– Setup of State Data Centres to support the e-government initiatives
– Setup of 1,00,000 information delivery kiosks called Common Service Centres at the village level
– A capacity building initiative within each state government to efficiently handle the implementation of various NeGP projects
As of October 2008, around 17500 CSCs had been setup, SWAN was operational in 5 states. The state Data Centres and capacity building initiatives were underway.
The NeGP is an extremely ambitious project and mammoth efforts towards implementation are underway. The success of these initiatives, even on a moderate scale, will go a long way towards making technology available across the rural spectrum and pave the way for inclusive growth.
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