'Land Beat' and 'Aadhaar Seeding' have achieved 92.72% and 67.65% completion. GoK aims to complete the works by end of August 2024.
Published Aug 16, 2024 | 8:00 AM ⚊ Updated Aug 16, 2024 | 5:12 PM
Representation Image '(South First)
In a bid to prevent fraud and illegal encroachment of the government and private lands, the Karnataka government’s revenue department has launched the “Land Beat” and “Aadhaar Seeding” initiatives, which are nearing the culmination. The government is aiming for completion by the end of August 2024.
While the “Land Beat” will help in identifying and protecting the lands of the various departments including revenue and forest departments from encroachment, the “Aadhaar Seeding” will digitise private and agricultural lands to prevent fraudulent transactions and promote ease of doing business.
According to the Revenue Department, “92.72 percent of Land Beat and 67.65 percent of Aadhaar Seeding works has been achieved to date.”
The initiatives are being carried out by the Revenue Commissionerate, set up last year. While the government has passed the bill to formally set up the Commissionerate, it is awaiting the nod of the Governor.
With 92.72 percent (13,13,617) of the identified 14,14,641 government plots and lands already verified using the “Land Beat”, the initiative has marked a major milestone in the state’s efforts to protect and manage its land resources effectively.
According to the revenue department noted, “Chikkaballapur stands at the top with completing 99.47 percent “Land Beat” works, followed by Kolar and Ramanagara, with 98.64 percent and 98.60 percent, respectively.”
Throwing light on this initiative, Revenue Commissioner P Sunil Kumar told South First: “Firstly, Bhoomi software has all the digitised data including RTC and other details. The RTC (records of rights, tenancy and crops) had 14-column data. We will process this data in various ways including flagging, numbering, providing unique numbers and other works will also be carried out.”
The revenue commissioner further explaining the importance of the initiative said, “A question arose about how much of the land has been protected. We have identified 14 lakh government lands. It is also for the first time we are talking about the status of government lands with actionable information like village, survey number, type of land, which department the lands belong to, area encroached, etc.”
Stating that an exclusive application was developed for this initiative, Sunil Kumar pointed out: “We have village-wise Bhoomi data. We will push for the village accountant—who has been entrusted with the land beat works to log in to this app.”
Further explaining the process, he added, “After logging in, the VA will visit each survey number in his jurisdiction, to verify the encroachment if any.”
“In this application, unless VA reaches a certain range of the particular survey number, it will not allow him to record anything or carry out further procedures,” the revenue commissioner added that this will prevent fake verification.
He continued: “When VA goes to verify the land, it can be partially or fully or not at all encroached. If there is no encroachment, then VA will update it as 100 percent no encroachment. In such cases, VA does not need to go/walk all along the boundary. There is no need for geo-fencing.”
“If there is a partial encroachment, then he has to walk the entire boundary of the illegally occupied land and do geo-fencing. Then, it will not only capture the land but also calculate the intruded area as well.”
“After this process, VA will submit the report to the revenue inspector, who will further submit the report to Tahsildar. Then, Tahsildar will accept and forward it to the surveyor, who will sketch it. He will take further actions to remove encroachment. With this process, we will have a detailed picture of the government lands including its encroachment,” added the revenue commissioner.
On verifying the VAs’ work, he pointed out: “According to the present system, it is a manual process to identify the encroachment of government land. In case of encroachment of the government land, one has to file a complaint before the deputy commissioner, who will refer it to Tahsildar— who will in turn submit the final report.”
Further explaining the old method, the revenue commissioner noted, “The decisions were largely dependent on Tahsildar’s report. There were chances it might be a misleading/fake report.”
He added, “Under the ‘Land Beat’, if the VA submits a fake report, we will have access to all the lands via satellite image. We can verify the government lands digitally. If the satellite image proves it is a fake report, then an action will be initiated against the VA. We can check the encroachment of any government land/parcel through this app. It is completely digitalized.”
Asked if the identification is being made of other department’s lands as well, he added: “This work has been entrusted to VAs. Initially, they had carried out ‘Land Beat’ for some of the other lands too, but later they refrained from conducting ‘Land Beat’ on lands other than the revenue department lands.”
“After several deliberations, it has been decided to hand over the login (Land Beat) to the respective departments to identify their lands. However, only VAs have the power to mark other departments’ lands in the application.”
“Meanwhile, VAs have also been instructed to do geo-fencing for lakes and burial grounds, irrespective of departments,” the revenue commissioner added.
He said that it has been extended to lakes and burial grounds to identify and remove the encroachments in the larger public interest.
Coming to the protection of private lands, the revenue department is carrying out “Aadhaar Seeding”, with an aim to prevent fraudulent transactions, identify encroachment of the government land and ease of doing business.
The revenue department has completed Aadhaar Seeding of 67.65 percent of private lands till 14 August, 2024. The remaining works are likely to be concluded by the end of August 2024.
According to the revenue department data: “There are 4,08,25,101 private lands in the state. The ‘Aadhaar Seeding’ activity has been attempted for 2.76 crore private plots. Among the total activity carried out, E-KYC has been done for 1.87 crore plots, with 1.32 crore private lands still under process.”
“Of the total E-KYC carried out, a total of 63,37,929 lakh are unique farmers, who own more than one plot, have been identified. Among these identified unique farmers, 75 to 80 percent are small and marginal farmers. There are 70 percent male and 30 percent female farmers.”
“In this process, 2,24,019 plots have been identified as government lands. Of the total verified private lands, it has been identified that with or without conversion 45,19,282 plots are being utilised. It has also been found out that 38,85,388 farmers are dead including duplicates as well,” claimed the revenue department.
Even “Aadhaar Seeding” is carried out by the village accountants at the ground level with the help of an exclusive application.
Revenue Commissioner Sunil Kumar speaking with South First: “We are considering all the private lands/plots for the Aadhaar Seeding. Similar to the ‘Land Beat’, in this application too, VA will be given login access. He will contact the owner of the private land and request for the ‘Aadhaar Seeding’. The owner will get the first OTP (One Time Password) from the government to give a nod for the further process.”
“After the first OTP is received and approved, E-KYC will be taken up. This time, the owner will get the OTP from the Aadhaar (server). After completion of the verification process, the owner will receive a third and final OTP from the government. The owner has to submit all the OTPs to the VA for a smooth process. Thus, the ‘Aadhaar Seeding’ process is finished,” the revenue commissioner however added that this is not mandatory.
When asked about the necessity of “Aadhaar Seeding”, he pointed out: “This process will help us to ascertain and consolidate the total private properties of a person. This intends to prevent fraudulent transactions of lands and bring transparency in the system.”
“This will enable the digital sketch of the private lands. With the digital sketches, it will ease several works including Podi (division of property among the legal heirs).”
“It is also important to note that if any transactions occur pertaining to the private lands, then the land owner will get updates via message similar to that of banks. We are touching every parcel that belong to private people,” added the revenue commissioner.
In cases of the private owner not having an Aadhaar card, he said: “We have not heard any complaints/issues about the land owner not having Aadhaar till now.”
“We will not store/record the Aadhaar number of any owner instead some other unique number will be generated,” clarified the revenue commissioner.
He added: “In the process, we have identified that 38.85 lakh plot owners, who own private land, who have died. It includes duplicates as well. In such cases, we will push for further procedures for Pouthi andholan (transfer of title to the rightful heir) to bring legal heirs on the records.”
“The government is still deliberating on the future of 45.19 lakh plots that have been with or without permission converted and in usage.”
Sunil Kumar exudes confidence that the “Aadhaar Seeding” work will be finished by the end of August 2024.
Stating that the “Land Beat” and “Aadhaar Seeding” works are being carried out in full swing, Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda asserted that the Aadhaar is being used to prevent impersonation and fake documentation.
Minister Krishna Byre Gowda told South First: “There was an issue pertaining to the protection of the government lands for the last 20 to 30 years. We are now approaching this issue in a systematic manner, with the land beat initiative for the government plots and Aadhaar seeding for the private lands.”
“We will have complete knowledge about the encroachment of the government land and also help to remove the illegally occupied land, and are using Aadhaar to prevent impersonation and creating fake documents.”
He continued: “Aadhaar is available with most people, whereas other IDs including PAN card are not available with all. Both of these initiatives will help protect the government and private lands.”
Reiterating that the work will be completed by the end of August, Krishna Byre Gowda stated that this will ease the work of the government as well.
(Edited by Sumavarsha Kandula.)
