How far has land management been digitised?

Land management is one of the most corrupt public service sectors in Bangladesh. The settlement process of land-related feuds is complicated and lengthy and not transparent. The service recipients often become victims of staff of land offices. Sometimes the recipients also take unjust benefits by bribing the officials. During its previous tenure the government took the initiative to digitize the land management system to expedite works in land administration and ensure transparency and accountability and root out corruption. The government claimed that huge progress has been made, but the reality is different. Some services are available online and some documents have also become digitized. But irregularities and corruption still prevail since land administration and land management are not fully digitized yet, resulting in inconvenience for people. The government has moved to modernize and digitize the land transfer registration system but no progress has yet been made in its implementation. The victims blamed a number of officials and staff of the department for the failure. If all sub-registry offices are brought under the digitization and all registration forms and other related information are available online, then people do not have to depend on deed writers, copyists (nokolnobis) or middlemen. As many as 20,000 copywriters work at 476 sub-registry offices and 61 district registry offices. The registration staff and officials, copyists, deed writers and stamp venders are against digitization, anticipating loss. Experts say it will not be possible to directly commit record forgery if land management is digitized. The staff and employees will no longer have opportunities for taking bribes and the number of feuds and cases over land will also reduce. How much will it cost to digitize land offices? Sources at the Ministry of Finance said it might require Tk7 to 10 crore to purchase computers and software in order to digitize land offices of 483 upazilas across the country. Moreover, it would cost Tk65 to 70 crore for the scanning of the existing 50 million land records. Besides, Tk9 crore will be spent on the staff of the offices who will supervise the work. The overall budget stands at more than Tk280 crore. According to a study by Copenhagen Consensus Centre, it currently costs Tk1,045 for the transaction of the record of a land and takes 30-45 days. One has to visit the land office four to five times to get the work done. Once digitized the cost would come down to Tk80 and take 15 days and one will have to go to the office twice only. Since the digitization will reduce both legal and illegal transaction, annual direct benefit will stand at Tk48 crore. Existing land survey method No surveys on total size of farmland, forest and water land have been done by modern methods. According to the Ministry of Land, Bangladesh has a total area of 147,000 square kilometers-- 137,000 square kilometers are lands and the remaining 10,090 square km are wetlands. Three administrations are assigned for land management, said the ministry. Firstly, departments of land record and survey (DLRS) are assigned for survey of the land and making records. Secondly, in the field level, divisional commissioners and assistant commissioners (land) are assigned with record updates, maintenance and realizing land revenue. Thirdly, sub-registrars under the Ministry of Law are assigned for land registration. Sources at the ministry said the survey is supposed to be conducted once every five years. But the survey method is old, complicated and lengthy. It took 53 years (1887-1940) to conduct the first land survey in Bangladesh. The survey is known as cadastral survey or CS record. Another survey called `SA record’ was conducted under state acquisition in 1955 after the revoking of the zamindari custom. It took 7 years to finish the survey. To bring the whole system under digitization, modern equipment such as global positioning system (GPS), electronic total station (ETS), and data recorder need to be used to conduct land survey and other works. To introduce digital survey project, 68 ETS, 9 work stations, 28 map processing software, three laser printers, two diesel generators and other equipment were purchased for three areas including Narsingdi Sadar, Jessore’s Monirampur and Patuakhali’s Kalapara. But most of this equipment remains unused due to lack of skilled manpower, lack of training and other complications. What the ministers say Land Minister Shamsur Rahman Sherif said the digitization process has commenced to root out corruption in land management. “The process will be finished in the quickest possible time. We have made huge progress. “Since it is an ancient method it takes time to fix. Once the work is over both the service recipients and staff will benefit,” said the minister. During a recent meeting at the Secretariat, State Minister for Land Saifuzzaman said work is underway to digitize [land offices of] 45 upazilas. “Besides, land zoning project is also underway. People will get the benefit soon.”