Shillong, Oct 10: The office of the Department of Land Resources, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, New Delhi today held meeting with the three Autonomous District Council from Meghalaya, Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council, Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council and Garo Hills Autonomous District Councl on the proposal under Digital India Land Record Modernization Programme (DIRLMP).
This meeting is a follow-up to the workshop held on the 3rd and 4th of May 2023, on the subject matter of Customary and Indigenous Laws, Current Practices, and new initiatives for the Autonomous District Council of North-East India.
As a follow-up of the workshop, a delegation led by Shri. Teiborlang Pathaw, EM met earlier with the Joint Secretary of the Department of Land Resources, Ministry of Rural Development Government of India New Delhi on the 10th of August 2023, wherein direction was given for submission of the proposal as per the guidelines and format under DIRLMP.
Subsequently, after thorough preparation and as directed by the ministry official in consultation with the Directorate of Land Records, Shillong the final proposal was submitted to the Government through the District Council Affairs Department who accordingly forwarded the same to the planning department for approval.
Then a delegation led by Shri Teiborlang Pathaw, Executive Member In-Charge Land etc., visited Delhi along with representatives from the JHADC and GHADC assisted by the Joint Director Meghalaya Survey Shri Jim R. Marwein to submit the proposal to the Ministry. The meeting was chaired by honorable Shri Sonmoni Borah, IAS, Joint Secretary of the Department of Land Resources, Ministry of Rural Development,
In the meeting the Chairman briefed all on the previous meeting held on the 10th of August 2023, who also informed on the meeting organized by the KHADC with the headman for sensitizing on the Scheme attended by more than 140 headmen, which was a grand success.
In was discussed on the creation of a single PMU account at the state level to link all the autonomous district councils for smooth fund flow. He also spoke on capacity building and training so that once the project is over the council will be empowered to function on their own.
Mr. Ajay Tirkey, IAS, Secretary of the Department of Land Resources, Ministry of Rural Development, expressed the need for all Nort-Eastern states to keep pace with the latest technology for land management.
Several questions were raised on the same and were answered as a response of a poor land governance system. For all development activities, land governance is the starting point. Overall, 95% of the land has been digitized and the remaining 5% lies in the North-East.
He expressed the necessity for all North-Eastern Hills Councils to move ahead in this direction to have a modern and vibrant land governance system which would also be a model for the rest of India.
In the meeting the member from GHADC stressed on the role of the autonomous council vis-à-vis the unique land tenure system amongst the three ADCs about the implementation of DILRMP and the fear of the people.
Seeing the demerits of the traditional method for issuing land documents they see this as a way forward, keeping in mind the cultural ethos, and sentiments and keeping pace with technology. He also stressed the need to sensitize the people to digitizing land records besides capacity-building exercises.
The members from JHADC informed that they had been issuing land-holding certificates for quite some time using GPS technology. The issue before them is the computerization of all records.
The Executive Member in-charge Land, KHADC stated that they are ready to implement the DILRMP scheme since the customary practices of issuing land documents have been codified by the enactment of the Khasi Hills Autonomous District (Regulation and Administration of Land) Act 2021.
He also spoke on the recent direction from the Meghalaya High Court for the digitization of land records and linking with the civil courts for adjudication of several land litigations.
In the meeting they have taken resolution that the proposal will be finalized and approved tentatively by the 10th of November 2023. Officials from the Ministry will be visiting Shillong for launching of the scheme. The scheme will be implemented within the framework of the Indian Constitution.
