Introduction

In a predominantly agrarian economy, records of land ownership and use are of great importance. However, most of these records are legacy data. Often, retrieval of a particular record requires a landowner to run from pillar to post and to waste precious time and money for a task that should not be so difficult. The Madhya Pradesh government's Bhu-Abhilekh has come as a godsend to the landowners of the state.
State of Madhya Pradesh has prepared a largest database of Land records in the country. In the State of M.P. the Land Records of all revenue villages have been computerized, i.e. the textual data of land records are 100% converted into electronic form. Computerized land records are modified on regular basis with the facility of automatic weekly backup. Thirty Five million Khasra (Plot/Survey) numbers comprising of Eleven million Landowners have been computerized.
Bhu-Abhilekh is a G2C (Government to Consumer) and G2G (Government to Government) application software used by the Office of the Commissioner, Land Records and Settlement, Department of Revenue in the Madhya Pradesh government. Bhu-Abhilekh comprises a computerized master database of land records that stores plot-wise and owner-wise details on land,crops, revenue, irrigation, demand, collection, land type, tenancy, and so on. This data can be retrieved, changed and updated. The system also allows periodic reports to be generated and issued to landowners including the two important documents Khasra -the record of Rights (ROR)- and Khatauni.

Objectives:-

• Bhu-Abhilekh aims at facilitating delivery of citizen services as well as Computerisation of Land record management. The prime objectives of the scheme include, inter alia, the following:-
• Bhu-Abhilekh is primarily focused on entry of legacy data and creating a repository of ownership and land use information. Following are some of the main features of ‘Bhu-Abhilekh’:
• Computerized recording, storage, and retrieval of attribute (non-spatial) data, comprising ownership and land use information
• Creation of Master database storing plot wise and owner wise details on land, crop, revenue, irrigation, demand, collection, land type, tenancy etc. to computerize the 2 major documents Khasra & Khatauni.
• Generation and issue of periodic reports including a copy of the Record of Rights (ROR), Khatauni etc. to the land owners through the computerized system.
• Land Owner Satisfaction.
• Improved and efficient service delivery.
• Easy maintenance and updates.
• Providing SMART (Simple, Moral, Accountable, Responsible, and Transparent) Land Administratoion.
• Information retrieval via user-friendly screens and customized reports.

Features at a Glance:-

System Workflow:-

• Captures complete workflow with minimal human intervention.

Mutation:-

• Provision for all possible types of Mutation
• Generation of notices in the prescribed formats
• Scanning of supporting documents for storage, retrieval and printing
• Restricts backdated data entry and manipulation
• Automated updation of revenue records

Reports:-

• Generation and issue of periodic reports including computerised copies of the Record of Rights (ROR) (P-II), Khatauni (B-1) etc. to the landowners on pre-printed, plain and A4 size stationary.
• Facility to extract exclusive data of diverted land and individual liability

Data Entry:-

• Local Language (Hindi) Interfaces
• Support for both GIST and Remington Key Board layout

Data Security:-

• Bio-metric authentication
• Password and role based authorization

Menu-driven and modular

Multi-user Client-Server Model

Automatic DSN Creation

Forced Backup (weekly)

Restore

Audit trail

Software development & Version Control:-

• Bhu-Abhilekh Ver 1.0 released on 25/01/2003 for implementation at tehsil level all over M.P with the features viz. Modification facility, Printout of ROR/B-1, Data backup and restoration facility, Year-ending, Data availability view facility, User Rights, Audit Trail.
  Bhu-Abhilekh Ver 2.0 released on 08/11/2004 & implemented with the features viz. Remington and phonetic facility for typing, Automatic weekly backup, Provision of Panch-Sala Khasra, Mutation Module, Computer data is freezed after year-ending, Reports facility on A-4 & pre-printed paper, Graphical presentation of computerized data, Restriction of back dated data entry, Supports biometric authentication, Storage, retrieval and printing of scanned documents, Separate utility is provided for checking any code mismatch in the master codes with the standard codes for merging of different databases, Option to display the area in hectare, meter and feet.
  Bhu-Abhilekh Ver 3.0 released on 19/10/2006 & implemented with the features viz. Patwari halkawise rights to data entry operator for data entry/ modification, District/ Tehsil/ RI /Halka/ Village & year wise backup facility, Faster crop modification based on selection of crop & group of khasras. Incremental backup & restore facility. Facility to print / extract exclusive data of diverted land & individual liability. Automatic creation of new survey numbers based on Patwari manuals. Separate screen for tree entry with name and number village wise and khasra wise both, Single click for collection of tax and arrears, After installation of version 3.0 previous versions will be restricted, Tehsildar as super user will assign user rights.
  

  Bhu-Abhilekh Data center :-

  Bhu-Abhilekh Data centre S/w released on 19/10/2006 & implemented without data modification facility to insure data integrity. The data of all the tehsils of the district may be kept at the District data center without merging and the landowner can get his ROR/B1 copies on pre-printed/ plain/ A4 size stationary from the district centre for all the tehsils.

  AWARDS & CERTIFICATIONS:-

  ISO Quality Certification:-

  BHU-ABHILEKH Version 1.0 has been Product Certified (ISO 12119) for quality requirements and testing (ISO 9126-1 and 9126-2) for quality model by STQC Directorate, Department of Information Technology, Government of India.

  CSI Excellence award in 2003 for best IT uses in state of MP:-

  Land Records Information system has been awarded CSI Excellence Award (best IT uses in state) for promotion of Information Technology in Madhya Pradesh.

  ISO Certification	CSI Award

  Microsoft E-Governance Award 2006. :-

  BHU-ABHILEKH has been selected as a finalist for the prestigious Microsoft E-Governance Award 2006.

• 

  BHU-ABHILEKH Web site:-

  All Forty-Eight districts of Madhya Pradesh are hosted on the web with address http://www.mpbhuabhilekh.nic.in for dissemination of Records of Rights (ROR) in local language.
  The website has been redesigned for faster display of reports and hosted on temporary web server (URL http://demo.mp.nic.in/mpbhuabhilekh). More reports such as B1 (Khatauni), ROR (Name wise Search) & ROR (for all khata numbers) have been added. The site has cleared security audit and very soon it will be hosted on public domain.

  

  Progress achieved in making available record of rights-

  Distribution of hand written ROR are banned in Madhya Pradesh. Hand written ROR are permitted only in unavoidable circumstances. Computerization process has also increased in the revenue of Madhya Pradesh government from the distribution of computerized copies of ROR (Khasra/ Khatauni) as per the following chart and the progress is going on:

  Distribution of ROR (Khasra / Khatauni):-

   

  S. no.	Division	Year
  		2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
  1.	Jabalpur	77,246	1,10,041	98,404	1,23,008	1,13,003
  2.	Sagar	13,713	48,061	39,809	72,507	1,23,384
  3.	Rewa	21,482	34,103	17,092	16,508	39,985
  4.	Indore	1,05,451	89,628	76,807	1,01,967	1,62,572
  5.	Ujjain	28,883	9,313	26,284	66,183	1,57,281
  6.	Gwalior	48,797	1,78,145	1,93,577	2,38,870	2,24,590
  7.	Chambal	58,207	48,640	54,902	48,668	41,094
  8.	Bhopal	30,072	26,667	39,956	75,701	1,34,983
  9.	Hoshang- abad	4,626	13,300	33,658	50,136	66,513
  	State Total	3,88,477	5,57,898	5,80,489	7,93,548	10,63, 405

   

  

  Year Wise Revenue Collection In Rupees From The Distribution Of ROR:-

  S. No.	Division	Year
  		2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
  1.	Jabalpur	5,91,830	9,58,220	10,70,142	13,12,298	9,69,885
  2.	Sagar	1,42,615	2,90,162	3,80,752	7,47,434	19,31, 849
  3.	Rewa	2,03,020	2,53,570	1,74,860	1,93,919	7,00,713
  4.	Indore	8,91,150	8,99,077	7,79,935	10,57,638	18,70, 454
  5.	Ujjain	2,42,390	90,535	2,63,470	7,47,170	29,65, 547
  6.	Gwalior	5,74,865	22,75,210	22,78,523	31,85,583	32,49, 983
  7.	Chambal	5,26,580	3,65,231	3,62,615	4,61,758	6,91, 548
  8.	Bhopal	2,62,675	2,44,847	4,28,713	9,91,721	16,58, 604
  9.	Hoshang- abad	44,640	1,36,435	3,49,033	4,90,485	6,38, 610
  	Total	34,79,765	55,13,287	60,91,043	91,88,006	1,46,77, 193

  Manpower Training-

  To make a tehsil self-reliant, it is necessary to train the tehsil staff in computer basics, and as per directions of the Government of India, the State Government is engaged in training of the tehsil staff on regular basis, thus by the end of March 2006, the number of computer trained officials/employees has reached 10495 which is highest in comparison to any other Government organization.

  Model Computer Centre at tehsil level:-

  For the distribution of Over-the-Counter Nakal (ROR & B1) distribution under LR project following arrangements are made. Earlier following Hardware is available at districts.
  District Data Centre:- One Server, Three Clients, one laser printer, Two DMP and UPS.
  Sub Division level:- One Server, one Client, one DMP , one scanner and UPS.
  Tehsil level:- Two computers, one DMP and UPS.
  For Model Computer Centre setup redistribution of hardware are done as per following setup.
  District Data Centre:- One Server, one client and one laser printer for distribution of ROR & B1 copy for entire district.

  Tehsil office at District H.Q :-

  ICT infrastructure has been arranged in the form of Back and Front Office for the distribution of ROR copies

  Back Office:-

  One Server, four clients, two DMPs connected with LAN for the modification/ mutation related activities.

  Front Office:-

  one computer & one DMP connected with Back office through LAN for over the counter distribution of ROR /B1.

  Tehsil Office at Subdivision:-
  Back Office:-

  One Server, two clients, one DMP connected with LAN for the modification / mutation related activities.

  Front Office:-

  one computer & one DMP connected with Back office through LAN for over the counter distribution of ROR /B1.

  Future Roadmap :-

  Computerization of Tappa Tehsils / Sub-Tehsils-
  All matters of farmers pertaining to land are decided at Tehsils/ Sub-Tehsils level. Just for getting computerized ROR/B-1 he has to go tehsil which are far from sub-tehsil. The government of Madhya Pradesh wants to facilitate the landholders to get there copy of ROR at Sub-tehsil level. If GOI provides fund of Rs. 10.20 crore for 170 tappa tehsils the above facility can also be available at sub-tehsil/tappa tehsil level.
  Computerization of Revenue Courts-
  Strengthening and modernization of Revenue Courts will be useful for the online mutation / partition process and disposal of revenue cases. For this, if GOI permits a proposal will be submitted for the computerization of 505 revenue courts (272 Tehsildar Courts+185 Sub-division court+48 District Courts). Approximately Rs. 15.15 crore (Rs. 3.00 lacs per Court) will be required for the project.
  E-Land Card-
  Prime objective of e-land card is the authenticated electronic record of the land of individual owners which is available in the form of detailed data of the land. The electronically compiled information can be used wherever land record is required, may it be a financial institution, Court of law, Registrar office or any government or non-government office.
  Conversion of Patwari Basta into E-Basta-
  Under this scheme Notebook PC (Laptop) & Printer is proposed to be provided to all patwaris. The ultimate objective of using laptop is to replace the Patwari Busta into e-Busta to improve the citizen interface as well as the efficiency of grass-root level employees of land records. The proposed solution can facilitate data collection, updation of land records and issuance of necessary documents (computerized copy of ROR) to the citizen.
  Line Matrix Printers at Districts-
  Data of all 48 Districts are available on the website. As updation is a regular process, so data on the web do not reflect latest position. Work in progress for the establishment of District data centres and its linking with MP-SWAN (State Wide Area Network) / NICNET, by this updated data will be made online.
  In MP we are planning to replace Patwari's hand written ROR record with the computerized printed record (Computerized-Basta). The Hand Written Patwari record will be preserved in the record room for future references. As and when Mutation/updation is required Patwari will get the it modified at Tehsil Computer system and will get updated printed copy to fix in his record. This will lead online mutation/correction in the computerized record, and there will be uniformity in the patwari and on line computerized record. For this a high speed line matrix printer will be required at District level to get Patwari Basta printed periodically.
  This is highly essential for the verification & accuracy of tehsil data and generation of checklists. With the Computerized Patwari record, he will be bound to get done all the mutations in the computerized system immediately, So the computerized record will be the original record and patwari record will be replica of it. Secondly, until and unless the patwaris hand written record will not be replaced with the computerized copy, it will be difficult to prevent manipulations in the hand written record and this process will be a milestone for the success of computerization. With this high speed printer computerized record may be kept at Panchayat level offices for citizen services.