e-launching of ‘ULPIN’ & ‘SVAMITVA’ in J&K

To bring about necessary changes with intent to strengthen transparency as also empowering land owners, there must be broad based employment of technology and newer experiments. We cannot fight today’s problems with yesterday’s solutions which, therefore, call for breaking of the inertia still prevalent in the prevalent system. There may absolutely be no scope for any reservations as to the purpose of virtually a line of Union Ministers , one after the other , currently making it to the UT of Jammu and Kashmir which is with the purpose of attempting to either promising some sort of development or launching of some technological based approaches and the like about which we keep on analysing but only with a wish to have more of it done on the ground with support of good monitoring mechanism. In this connection , e-launching of Unique Land Parcel Identification Number (ULPIN) and Survey of Villages Abadi and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas (SVAMITVA) by the Union Minister for Panchayati Raj and Rural Development is with an aim to reach to the rural population and have the related schemes based on technologies to have transparency as well as quick and convenient access to the land owners.
In fact, ULPIN being aimed at digital India Land Records Modernization Programme of the Central Government whereby a 14 digital identification number is accorded to a plot of land and ULPIN having been rolled out in 12 States so far , UT of Jammu and Kashmir too has now been brought under its cover, definitely an innovative and technology driven initiative where indispensability of conventional revenue approach, the various ills associated therewith like corruption etc, are all sought to be done away with. In rural landscape , its importance cannot be underestimated both in its introduction as well as resulting in reduction of too many litigations between people related to land disputes.
Looking into ULPIN from the other angle , it can be safely assumed that once the new digital approach was introduced with encouraging results beyond imagination , frauds in respect of title, size, ambiguities of various hues etc would be things of the past due to element of extreme accuracy and transparency. All such fog of uncertainties, ambiguities and doubts were responsible for the rural land owner getting exploited hence paving the way for middlemen and other elements to make hay. Now, ways becoming easier through such e-launching for DBT to the farmers’ accounts besides land registration and mutation , there was scope of various services also to be brought under the ambit of ULPIN. The biggest advantage of this e-approach to land records was protecting government land also from getting encroached upon or dealt with in any form illegally . Still, greater advantage was integration of land record database with the one at revenue court records hence a shield against any sort of manipulations. Normally, while getting credit facilities from Banks etc , up-to-date records of the land and sharing the same between departments concerned will now become easier and in a transparent manner hence more of less time taken for the Banks taking a credit decision.
Likewise, SVAMITVA e- scheme is all about distribution of property cards with all legal sanctity to each household in every village in the country and Jammu and Kashmir now poised for implementing the said scheme is commendable. Property can now be used as financial asset to obtain credit from Banks and receive other financial benefits. Employing modern methods involving less costs but with assured satisfactory output being the purpose of the scheme, hence drone machines are employed to draw and prepare GIS based maps for each village . Once established, UT Government can find it easy to make future surveys. Panchayati Raj Institutions shall really feel empowered as all such land records albeit SVAMITVA will be available with village Panchayats itself. Such measures based on using modern technology lead to decentralisation of powers and more of transparency to make the three tier Panchayati Raj System more meaningful and functional .