THIRUVANATHAPURAM: The software RELIS designed to check the fraudulent land transactions across the state and thereby aiming to seal loopholes in the implementation of historical Kerala Land Reforms Act is all set to be rolled out in nine districts soon.
In the first phase, the Revenue IT Cell under the Revenue Department is gearing up to link 573 villages out of the 1,632 villages in the state through the RELIS (Revenue Land Information System).
These include Kannur, Wayanad, Thrissur, Palakkad, Ernakulam, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Pathanamthitta and Kollam districts.
"As a prelude to this, the software would be introduced in 15 resurveyed villages under the jurisdiction of SubRegistrar offices of Alathur and Vadakkanchery in Palakkad district by the first week of May," sources closely associated with the project told Express.
The lack of a central database for land ownership in 63 taluks in the state has been giving individuals certain degree of freedom to overcome the Land Reforms Act by which an individual can hold only a maximum of 15 acres in the state.
Since the software is linked to the Revenue Department's database, any attempt to overcome the land ceiling laws would be detected immediately. The software would also be linked to the Unique Identification (UID) Project, a flagship programme of the Union Government, which would in turn ensure that no individual can fake his identity to acquire land. This would also help investigating agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax and Vigilance and AntiCorruption Bureau to track any attempt to dupe the law. Also, the undervaluation of land will be curbed which will enhance the government's revenue by at least 100 times in the state where the land has skyrocketing prices, sources say.
The online mutation (transfer of registry/pokkuvaravu) through a common service centre such as Akshaya, would plug any chances of delay in the long and tedious process of land transactions while effectively checking the breeding ground for corruption and redtapism. "This would ensure that the citizens coming under the jurisdiction of village offices where the software is introduced would be relieved of all hurdles in land deal as transactions would be instant," sources say.
The data on land mainly comprise of textural data which is the record of land details being kept in the Revenue Department as Basic Tax Register (BTR) and in 'Tandaper register' (TPR) and spatial data which is digitised form of sketches of the individual holdings which would be a replica of field measurement books (FMB's) and subdivision sketches which is prepared at the time of either resurvey process or fragmentation of holdings resulting due to purchases or sales.
The RELIS, developed based on the broad guidelines issued under the Centrallysponsored scheme National Land Records Modernisation Programme (NLRMP) would interlink the Revenue, Registration and Survey departments in the state.