Development of the country requires acceleration of rural development, and rural development needs modernization of land records, as livelihood of most rural population depends on land resources.

Affirming this, President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday presented “Bhoomi Samman” awards, 2023 to State Secretaries and District Collectors, along with their teams, which excelled in modernizing the land records.

The officials, working across States, were implementing the Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme (DILRMP) of the Ministry of Rural Development and achieved saturation of its core components.

The President said a comprehensive integrated land management system is of utmost importance for the overall development of rural areas. Digitization increases transparency. The modernization and digitization of land records will have a great impact on the development of the country.

Digitization of land records and its linkages with various government departments would help in proper implementation of welfare schemes, she said. It would also be of great help in case of loss of documents due to calamities like flood and fire, she said.

The President was happy to note that under the Digital India Land Information Management System, a Unique Land Parcel Identification Number is being provided which could be useful like the Aadhaar Card.

She said this number would help in making proper use of the lands, as well as forming and implementing new welfare schemes. Linking of E-Courts with land records and the registration data-base would have many benefits. The transparency that is coming from digitization would curb unethical and illegal activities related to land, the President said.

Murmu said that access to land-related information in a free and convenient manner would have many benefits. For example, it would help in resolving disputes related to ownership and use of land.

She said that a large population of the country is involved in disputes related to land and a lot of time of the administration and the judiciary is consumed in these matters.

Through digitization and linkages of information, the energy of the people and institutions, which gets consumed in resolving disputes, would be utilized for development, she said.

The President said the Bhoomi Samman awards celebrate the success of India’s cooperative and competitive federalism. Land management is a responsibility of the State Governments while all programmes of Digital India are being carried out by the Central Government.

It is a matter of pride, she said, that India’s rural areas are getting linked with mobile and digital systems.

The President said the Land Records Modernisation Programme has picked up pace through the digital means. On the initiative of the Central Government, the programme of computerization and digitization of the relevant records is being carried out at district and State levels, she said.

Murmu said hundred per cent funding of the DILRMP by the Central Government had proved fruitful. All components of the programme had made good progress. This would help availability of lands information on real time basis and bring confidence in sale-purchase of land, she said.