Land records of 473 revenue villages out of 602 surveyed villages in the valley districts of Manipur have been computerized said the revenue minister of Manipur, Karam Shyam speaking at the 2-day Regional Conference of North Eastern Zone” under the Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme (DILRMP), jointly organized by Ministry of Rural Development (Department of Land Resources), Government of India and Revenue Department, government of Manipur which began in Imphal on Monday.

The Minister further impounded on the idea of conducting land survey in the hill districts of the state to digitise the land records and maintain them without compromising tribal customary and traditional land holding system rights. So far the villages in the hill districts of Manipur have not been surveyed as they come under Scheduled Areas of the protective Article 371C of the Indian constitution put in place to safeguard the rights of the scheduled tribes in Manipur. 90% of Manipur’s topography is hills while the rest is the valley. The Minister appealed to people in the hills to cooperate with the government to activate digitalization of land records even in the hills.

“Landowners can now access their land records using an online app called Loucha Pathap, developed and uploaded by the National Information Centre, Manipur. National Generic Documents Registration System (NGDRS) which was officially launched on July 13 last year in the office of the Sub-Registrar, Bishnupur will be extended soon in the Sub Registrar Office of valley districts as well,”

the minister added.

Declaring that the Centre approved a sum of Rs 1014.30 lakhs for Manipur on reimbursement basis for computerization of land records, computerization of registration and construction of 35 Modern Record Rooms of 35 Tehsils, Karam Shyam said that the State with its limited resource may find it difficult to implement the projects effectively if the funds for implementation of the same projects is to be released on reimbursement basis. He drew the attention of the Centre to consider the state government grievances.

“For the survey/resurvey of land, the state government has proposed Rs 330 lakhs but it was not permitted by expenditure Finance Committee. All the areas of valley districts of Manipur were surveyed under the Manipur Land Revenue & Land Reforms Act 1960 and resurvey at regular interval of the same village is required for updating of records,”

said Karam Shyam. 

 The minister also opined that replacing the traditional method survey land records by satellite base method will be more accurate. He revealed that currently survey and resurvey are going on in 90 revenue villages under the traditional method (Cadastral Survey).

Delivering the key-note address at the function, secretary Land Revenue, Government of India Roulkhumlien Buhril conveyed that Centre takes up DILRMP in view of the growing needs of having proper and error free land records in the country. Informing that there are many pending cases in Courts owing to lack of proper land records, he said there will be peace in the society besides going a long way in the effort to ease living, business and doubling farmers’ income.

There is 90 percent rise of land records in 25 States with the implementation of DILRMP and Tripura and Sikkim tops among North East States in the implementation of this program, he said.

Conveying that the Centre has been working on new initiative for allotment of unique land identification number which links to adhaar number, he said that the effort is to bring transparency and error free and interface in maintaining land records in the country. He also stated that the Centre is committed to providing every possible help to all States in implementing DILRMP.

Manipur Additional Chief Secretary Dr Suhel Akhtar also attended the function as president. The two day long programme will conclude tomorrow and many more experts will deliberate on DILRMP.