The Uttar Pradesh government has issued an order directing the Gautam Budh Nagar administration to digitise all land records from 2002.
The move is aimed at ensuring transparency and efficiency as it takes a lot of time to search old documents, officials have said.
Kanchan Verma, inspector general of stamp & registration, has directed the district administration to hold a meeting with the sub-registrars and chalk out a plan by Tuesday for the scanning and digitisation of over 13 lakh land records in a “smooth, safe and time-bound manner”.
In his letter, Verma wrote that the government has initiated works for digitisation of land records from 2002-2017. “Gautam Budh Nagar’s 13,08,449 land record files need digitisation. The government has also sanctioned 51 computers, 17 scanners and other equipment for this work.”
The digitisation process will also be done under the coverage of CCTV cameras. The staff will also be given deadlines to digitise a certain number of files daily to complete the project, according to officials.
According to an estimate, land-related disputes account for two-thirds of all pending court cases in the district. These land disputes include those related to the validity of land titles and records, and rightful ownership.
The digitisation of records will help the residents as certified copies of property documents are needed in case of loss or theft and also in courts.
PPS Nagar, an advocate dealing in sale and purchase deeds of properties, said, “The digitisation of land records will immensely help people. As present, Noida registrar’s office is partially digitised. We easily get certified copy of documents registered in recent years but getting the copy of old documents is a tedious task.”
Shyam Singh Bisen, in-charge of Noida’s stamp and registration department, said the digitisation work will be completed in one year. “We are setting up infrastructure for digitisation works,” he said.
The stamp and registration department has been keeping digital documents since 2011 while documents registered before it require digitalisation.
Noida’s stamp and registration department has not met annual targets in the past six years. In 2016-17, it collected Rs 1,761 crore against a target of Rs 2,222 crore; in 2017-18, it collected Rs 1,685 crore against Rs 2,252 crore; and in 2018-19, the collection was Rs 1,879 crore against Rs 2,532 crore.
Similarly, in 2019-20, the department collected a revenue of Rs 1,856 crore against Rs 2,597 crore. Due to the outbreak of Covid, its revenue was sharply affected in 2020-21 when it recorded Rs 1,593 crore against Rs 3,148 crore.
In 2021-22, the registration improved and again the revenue collection reached Rs 2,377 crore against Rs 3,463 crore annual target. In the financial year 2022-23, the department recorded a revenue of Rs 1,887 crore till November 2022 against the annual target of Rs 4,062 crore.
