In a major development under the Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme (DILRMP), the government has announced that 99.79 per cent of existing land records in India have been digitised. The initiative is seen as a transformative step for the agriculture sector and land governance in the country
Minister of State for Rural Development Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar informed Parliament that digitisation efforts include the Record of Rights (RoR), cadastral (spatial) maps, and their integration through dynamic updates. The move is expected to improve transparency, reduce land disputes, and bolster policy-making through data-driven approaches.
The digitised land records are being increasingly integrated with agriculture-focused programmes such as the Digital Crop Survey and Agri Stack. These integrations aim to help both farmers and the administration by enabling real-time data sharing on crops and land ownership.
In a parallel effort to enhance judicial efficiency, a pilot project linking eCourts with digitised land records has been successfully conducted in three states, Haryana, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh. This initiative, implemented in association with the Department of Justice, is designed to accelerate the resolution of land-related disputes by providing courts with authenticated records.
“Till now, 26 states and Union Territories have received approvals from their respective High Courts to integrate land records with the eCourts software,” said Sekhar.
Recognising linguistic diversity as a barrier in land governance, the Department of Land Resources, with support from the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Pune, has rolled out a transliteration initiative. The effort allows for the conversion of land records into any of the 22 scheduled languages under the Indian Constitution.
As of now, 17 states and UTs, including Assam, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tripura, West Bengal, and Jammu & Kashmir, have enabled systems that support the transliteration of records.
Another key advancement is the geo-referencing of cadastral maps, allowing agricultural plots to be accurately mapped. These maps play a vital role in the Digital Crop Survey, enabling surveyors to collect data directly from farm plot boundaries.
Officials believe that the large-scale digitisation and mapping efforts will also assist in disaster management, insurance assessments, and rural development schemes.
The central government continues to urge states that have not yet completed the integration or geo-referencing processes to expedite their efforts under the DILRMP framework.
