Good Practices and Innovations in Public Governance 2003-2011

Good Practices and InnovATIONS in Public Governance
Asia and the Pacific
India
2006 Category 2 Winner
Online Delivery of Land Records
Government of Karnataka, Revenue Department, India
Description
Improving transparency and service delivery through e-Government by serving
citizens on a “first-come-first-served” basis.
The Problem
Two-thirds of India’s population of 53 million people live in rural areas. The primary
objectives of the Bhoomi was to improve the quality of service delivery by recording
online citizens’ property assets.
The Solution
The government of Karnataka implemented a project, known as Bhoomi (meaning
land in Hindi), to provide information about land records to all citizens. Before the
development of Bhoomi, 20 million records were maintained by approximately
9,000 village accountants, and it had become increasingly difficult to administer this
data. Moreover, not all the data were available. Since the land records are instruments
of social justice, they are extremely important for citizens. There are two types of
records that the administration maintains: the first type is the record of Rights, Tenancy
and Crops (RTC), which is used for various purposes such as obtaining crop
loans, hypothecation of land, government concessions, and subsidies; the second
type are village maps that reflect the boundaries of land parcels.
In 1999, the Indian government initiated a program to computerize the land records
across the country. The purpose of this project was to improve transparency of the
record administration, protect the records from manipulations, and increase the usefulness
of data in the records. By doing so, the district administration would be able
to use the records for complex planning and development activities.
The government also mandated information disclosure to the public to improve transparency,
and to reduce corruption and manipulation at the lower government levels.
Between 2001 and 2002, the state of Karnataka finally implemented the project.
The Bhoomi project was a great success and it has recently proven to be very useful
and efficient. By March 2002, all 177 Bhoomi centres became operational and citizens
were able to check their land record data at a “first-come-first-served” basis.
336