In the present era of digitization, a unique step has been taken in Karnal district of Haryana. Here, revenue records as old as 150 years are being digitalized at a frenetic pace. The step has been taken by the District Magistrate of Karnal Nishant Yadav, a 2013 batch IAS officer from Haryana cadre, who has been taking various initiatives to make Karnal a digitally smart district.
With around two crore pages of revenue records to be digitalised, a deadline has been set by the DM to speed up the process. The work is scheduled to be completed by 15 September of this year. Mr. Yadav has also assigned Indri SDM Sumit Sihag and District Revenue Officer Shyam Lal to oversee the work and complete it by the deadline.
LAND RECORDS LAID IN TATTERS
Talking to Indian Masterminds, Mr. Nishant Yadav said, “The revenue records were from the British era and were kept in a dilapidated condition, so much so that photocopies of such document was not even possible. Hence, the process of scanning the documents and digitizing them was started.”
The revenue records between 1865 and 1964, of Panipat (1865-1959), Kurukshetra (1865-1956), Kaithal (1865-1957) and the old court records of Karnal district between 1905 and March 31, 1987, were kept in the old record room, built in the colonial times.
“Fifty people have been put to task to shift the land records of the old record room to the new room. The new record room has been expanded in the Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College (KCGMC), on the second floor of the mini secretariat,” said the DM.
NOW CHECK RECORDS IN JUST ONE CLICK
The land records in Karnal are being scanned and digitized, and along with this the records are also being kept in steel boxes with a barcode on it. By scanning the barcode, the land records can easily be identified. Mr. Yadav said, “Some of the records were written in Urdu language, for which a translator is being used. Apart from this, as the records are very old and are in a bad condition, lamination is being done to protect the papers.”
He added, “Out of the total two crore land record pages, the team has managed to digitized 1.2 crore pages and 80 lakhs are yet to be completed. The task will be done by 15 September.’’
By taking this initiative, the land records which would earlier take a lot of manpower and time to locate would now be just a click away. This would also ease the work for the revenue department as the fraudulent cases regarding land disputes can easily be identified and rectified.
