THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The digitisation and preservation of old survey records and Cadastral Maps, which were aimed at bringing in more transparency in the land records, has not taken a lead even after the government spent crores as part of the project.
The absence of proper planning and lack of coordination with the related departments involved in land records management is said to have led to the slowdown of the major initiative.
The Comptroller and Auditor General in the report for the year ended March 2013, has come down heavily on the government stating that the project was still a non-starter.
Though the CAG has been critical towards the government for its lackadaisical attitude, the government said that the project had taken some leads but is yet to be completed.
Revenue Minister Adoor Prakash said that the work on digitisation and preservation of old survey records and Cadastral Maps was going smoothly.
“Recently a meeting was held with the officials of various departments for speeding up the project. In the Revenue department there is a separate wing that deals with this work,” he said.
When contacted, survey director Mitra T also made it clear that the project, which is being implemented by the Kerala Land Information Mission (KLIM), is going ahead. “Already a Central Digitisation Centre has been opened and we are planning for a District Digitisation Centres that will help in speeding up the work,” she said. However, officials pointed out that the process of digitisation was yet to begin in majority of the villages. Enough fund has been received from the Centre, but the state government is yet to utilise it fully. The Centre, sanctioned in 2011, was to be set up at a cost `1.21 crore. But the work has not been completed and only an amount of 0.59 crore has been spent.
Apart from this, the government has also been pushing for a District Integrated Land Records Centre, aimed at updating of textual and spatial data at district-level. Sanctioned in 2010, the government had proposed to complete the Centre in 2012. The CAG in its report has said that KLIM experienced difficulties in coordinating Revenue and Registration Departments to accomplish the task.