land administration was primarily created for collection of land revenue. It was divided in two parts — creation of land records and maintenance of land records. The former is done by the land record and survey whereas the latter is guarded by the district administration. Both these wings are facing challenges. The changing people to land relationship, the need to pursue sustainable development and above all requirement to administer with ICT (information and communication technologies) enabled lIS (land Information System) offers new challenges.
Our officials are experienced in defining and describing land parcels and their associated rights. land markets mainly involved buying, selling, mortgaging and leasing of rights in land. The prevailing land administration catered all such needs but the changed circumstances of today has underscored that they need more appropriate skills to serve the new demands.
Our initial land administration focussed on land revenue only but gradually the situation has changed. Now they have to cope with land markets as well both in urban and rural areas. There is also growing feeling among them to control and regulate land use by planning which is not happening in most of the states. In future they may be required to support sustainable development objectives.
At present the current system in Jharkhand is totally manual. Although it was one of the pioneer states in computerisation of land records and East Singhbhum started computerisation of land records as early as 1978 but other districts are still far behind. Most of the States in India now have digital information about land and digital parcel maps. At some places both are integrated. Our State needs to bridge the gap as early as possible.
Various rights, restrictions and responsibilities in both the tenancy acts of Jharkhand warrant much administrative action. Illegal transfers of land, dispossession of the tribes and restoration of land add to the responsibilities of the revenue officials. lack of coherent management of restrictive land and their updated information has become most important today. Tribes of the state are very rapidly losing their land in absence of proper management.
Data on various aspects of land such as erosion, salinity, acidity, vacant land, environmental pollution and infertility of the soil are not documented. Their proper accounting is necessary for sustainable development of the state and the country. Appropriate laws are the need of the hour and their implementation will be concerns of the land administrators. Problems such as boundary dispute, ownership rows, land re-measurements, payment of land taxes, land possession and non- encumberance certificates are vexatious issues facing the landowners. Most of the complaints are related to them and land administrators are not able to provide immediate relief to the people because our land records are manual and they cannot be immediately checked.
Changing form of ownership is another major challenge. Traditionally there were three main ownerships viz., communal, individual and state ownership. But PPP concept of collaborative engagements of the Government and private players result in the land being alienated to the latter. Such ownerships along with their rights and duties need to be entered and managed accordingly to ensure delivery of defined gains.
Gradual evolution of new types of transfers of land such as through unregistered documents, plain gifts, affidavits particularly in Santhal Parganas need to be regulated. Future land administrators need to evolve new mechanisms to control them so that owners get their genuine value of land and the state gets its due revenue.
The land administration and cadastral system passed through various phases of evolution namely manual system, computerisation, and on-line administration. Foreign countries like Australia have developed further and are now working with E-land. Two decades back, process and collection of information was distinct and separate. But available new technology and pressures on land administrators created by increased population, multiple land uses, environmental degradation and climatic changes necessitated E-land administration.
The latest concept is I-land. I-land is a vision of integrated, spatially enabled land information available on internet which facilitates government policies by information such as people, interests, rights, prices and transactions. Above brief account shows the issues which the land administrators are going to face in the future. Preparations and proper execution of plans are needed so that the State makes a fast journey from on-line to E-land and I-land administration.
(The writer is a senior IAS officer in Jharkhand and the views expressed in the article are his own)