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Recognizing e-Government Initiatives in India

Project Category Main Document

KERALA STATE LAND BANK PROJECT

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A. Project Overview

Land is one of the most inestimable resources as far as state of Kerala is concerned. The state with its

dense population, is finding it hard to satisfy the land needs of even the most deserving categories and

development initiatives. Kerala pioneered land reforms and enacted the Land Reforms Act and implemented

the reforms effectively. Land Reforms Act accompanied by other legal instruments like Kerala land

Conservancy Act, 1957; The Kerala Escheats and Forfeitures Act, 1964; The Kerala Revenue Recovery Act, 1968;

The Kerala Land Assignment Rules, 1964 etc., gave the Government ample support to conserve, improve and

manage the lands vested with it.

Despite all these, encroachments in Government lands have been rampant especially in the 1990’s. To

take inventory of Government land and to curtail illegal encroachments on Government lands the Government

of Kerala initiated a project called KERALA STATE LAND BANK for the scientific inventorisation and

professional management of Government lands. This would assist the Government in the rational use of

Government owned lands with a perspective on the future developments of the State. Through this

Government will be implementing measures for the overall control of encroachments and rational use of

Government lands for meeting the developmental as well as social obligations of the State in future. Most

importantly the initiative would make a non-tamperable, error free data base of Government lands for the first

time in the history of any state in India.

The Department of Revenue is acting as the custodian of KERALA STATE LAND BANK on behalf of

themselves and sister departments like PWD, LSGD, Department of irrigation etc. as well.

If the envisaged objectives of the KSLB are accomplished fully, there will not be any future encroachments

on Government lands. The transparency on assignment of lands and leases etc., can be assured through the

activities of KSLB. A strict vigil on Government lands by the proposed agency will reduce the burden of the

village office / taluk office / collectorates, which are overburdened with other routine activities at present.

The new world economics hallmarked by commercialization, industrialization, urbanization etc. puts extra

pressure on available land resources, no matter the land in question is under private or public ownership. This

results in encroachment and misappropriation of public lands and unprecedented disputes over the ownership

of private lands. The figures show that the occurrence of such incidents has been on the rise especially after the

1990’s in the state of Kerala. The Governance of Land including inventorisation, protection of public lands,

registration coupled with online - real time transfer of registry, computerized, retrievable common land data

base etc. are going to be the key elements in the management of total governance in a state, as land is going to

be one of the most critical factors of production, source of investment and a valuable reserve for the future

development. The macro and micro level reflections of this phenomenon and associated conflicts are already

visible in the world politics and even at the micro social systems like families. Without proper land Governance

systems these state of affairs cannot be tackled in an appreciable manner.

Governance of land being one of the early evolved systems, the transformation of the same usually

pose lot of challenges in various fronts including multiple legal challenges as it involves plenty of stakeholders

with conflicting interests and regulations. The technological advancements of recent times should act as the

‘tools of change’ and the beneficiary stakeholders should as ‘change agents’ towards bringing in transformation

in the land governance systems. Transformation of the old systems cannot be implemented overnight and it

requires perfect planning and execution of the ‘change’.

In general, from the administrative point of view, Land means “the solid ground portion on earth

primarily classified based on tenure as Public land and Private land. The private land refers to portion of land

on which there is absolute freehold right and is conveyable by a deed and public land means the un

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appropriated land belonging to Government, used to encourage economic development of public at large,

reserved for public use and for the settlement of the landless”. This definition is in conformity with the various

Acts and Rules prevailing in India and in most of states including Kerala. The Land Governance “concerns the

Rules, processes and structures through which decisions are made about access to land and its use, the manner

in which the decisions are implemented and enforced, the way that competing interests in land are

managed”[FAO,2009]. Though, the land governance systems have been highly institutionalized since the

beginning of the 20th century in Kerala, the lack of discipline had resulted in unprecedented issues like

tampering of land records, frequent incidents of encroachments on government lands, faulty land registrations

etc.

As per the Rules of land and the draft land policy of state of Kerala good governance of land include;

� The access to information on land should be equitable in nature: The degree of information on

land is the key to good land governance for the government and the people. The transparency

in land deals both by the Government and the private persons can only be ensured through

making the information on land equitably available to all.

� Accountability on protection of public resources based on Doctrine of Public Trust and

Doctrine of Eminent Domain. The public land resources are to be conserved, protected and

reserved for the future generations towards sustainability of the generations to come. The

fixing of accountability on protection of public lands has been further streamlined through the

enactment of Kerala Land Conservancy [Amended] Act, 2009 which imposes serious penal

provisions against the offenders including the irresponsible officials.

� Effective and efficient administration of land to cater the G2G, G2C and C2C services: In a

democratic country like India the services related to land given by the Government, should be

based on an error free inventory of private lands and should satisfy the immediate needs of

the citizens within the shortest period of time. This inventory should not override the

inventory of public lands which are meant for the public at large. The situation demands a

perfect textual and spatial database generation with the help of ICTs to cater to the immediate

needs of the citizens.

Towards ensuring good Land Governance in the state two initiatives have been introduced in the year

2007-08 by Government of Kerala namely the Kerala State Land Bank project and ReLIS [REvenue Land

Information System]-a version 2.0 of Land record computerization programme now being pursued under the

NLRMP [National Land Record Computerisation Programme] under the auspices of State IT cell-Revenue.

The project was officially launched on 18.02.2010, even though the basic steps were initiated since June,

2007. As the initiative involves systematic and sustainable fostering the initiative would be brought

permanently under the proposed “Land Governance Society of Kerala” a Programme Management Unit under

National Land Record Modernisation Programme [NLRMP].

As per the original objectives of the projects will cater the following services to Government in the land

governance sector,

a. Inventorisation of public land: Under this objective all the public lands are being surveyed and

details are hosted in the website www.kslb.kerala.gov.in. This project was started in the year 2008-09 and as on

today, textual database of 27 348 land parcels, spatial data base of 14 452 land parcels where resurvey has been

completed covering 73 236.97.07 Ha and field survey using WGS-84 datum has been completed for 278 land

parcels in villages which were not resurveyed so far. The photographs of more than 12 000 land parcels have

also been uploaded in the site [as on 31.07.2012].

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b. Income generation from public land: The KSLB will be the sole agency in the state which will act as

the custodian of leasable / licensable Government lands. The entire management of lease cases will be carried

out through the Lease Alert System [LAS] which is at the final stage of implementation. This would help the

Government in maximizing the returns through timely collection of leases without any lapses.

During the 12 th Plan Period KSLB is planning to enter in to new sector wherein the KSLB will act as a

Land Transaction consultants in the Government sector which will buy land from agencies like Commercial

Banks who are finding it difficult to manage the attached lands during loan recovery process. Besides this the

KSLB will buy land from open market to reduce forced / distress sale by the land owners in the state. The KSLB

after the inventorisation process is going to prepare a comprehensive list of saleable [Units of 3 cents each]

lands. Such Government lands which will be available for the low / medium / high income group of landless

people with a vision on development of rural areas. The exhaustive list of such lands will be on display in the

website www.kslb.kerala.gov.in and in media so that, people can apply for such notified land. This type of

allotment, based on the quota of allotment will be as per Kerala Land Assignment Rules, 1964 which curbs the

misuse of such allotted land. The quota for each category will be fixed based on economic and social

backwardness of the applicant and after being cleared by the respective Taluk Land Assignment Committees

[TLAC].

Besides this the land in the commercially important sites will be put to auction for inviting commercial

projects from Public / Private Sector agencies on BOT basis for 25-30 years. The building plans approved by

KSLB, will alone be allowed at such sites mainly towards infrastructure development in the state using the NRK

funds.

Towards protecting large extents Government lands in rural areas from encroachment with a better

public attention Tree Banks will be established this year with trees like Mahagoni, Teak, Rosewood and Sandal

wood with multipurpose objectives of environmental protection, better returns from Government lands,

sustainable income for the Government, protection from encroachment, measure to meet future wood

requirement of the society etc. This sub programme will be introduced this year under the annual activity of

KSLB.

c. Surveillance and protection: The KSLB with its own machinery and with the help of local revenue

officials has been undertaking the surveillance activities of the Government lands. Towards giving a new fillip

to this activity creation a Public Land Protection Force (PLPF) has been introduced this year [refer

www.kslb.kerala.gov.in – activities so far]. The personnel from PLPF and the Village Officers will sign the Beat

Registers to be kept near the on monthly intervals so as to assure two inspections to a site in a month.

A Toll Free Number 1800 425 5255 has already been established towards reporting of encroachments of

public lands by the general public and also to inform about the Government lands which are left out from

inclusion in the website. The toll free number is made Interactive Voice Response System [IVRS] during the

annual plan period 2012-13.

Protection of Government lands is also being done by erecting Jundas, Boards and by erecting live / non

living fences around the sites [refer www.kslb.kerala.gov.in – activities so far].

The various Stake Holders in the project and their specific roles and responsibilities are given

hereunder

Citizens: are the most important component even in a G2G service. In the Citizen Assisted Eviction of

Encroachments, it is expected that, the citizen would help the Government in alerting the encroachments in

public lands through the Toll Free Number 1800 425 5255 and inform the Government about the left out

Government lands from the fold which the officials had left out from reporting deliberately / non deliberately.

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Besides this, citizen would be in a position to doubly assure the land purchased is not Government land by

looking at the website www.kslb.kerala.gov.in.

Department of Revenue: The department through the Village Officers and Tahsildars are helping a lot

in updation of the database of the land bank. The prescribed reports in Proforma I [refer www.kerala.gov.in-

Downloads] are the basis for the textual database of land bank. They are responsible for filing Primary

Information Reports [PIR] pursuant to a complaint of encroachment in public lands.

Public Land Protection Force [PLPF]: These specially trained Ex Service men would conduct

surveillance of 150 land parcels in a month @ minimum of 3 parcels in a day. Their visit to the site should be

recorded in the BEAT REGISTER kept at the adjoining houses near the public land.

Department of Survey & Land Records: The surveyors in the department and in the KLIM are expected

to make the spatial updation of database of land bank. The GPS team in KLIM would fix and monument GCPs

to the tune of 30 / village so that the Government land could be surveyed first in the non-resurveyed villages by

invoking Rule 82 of Survey and Boundaries Rules.

AMC Vendor: The vendor is supposed to maintain the systems with minimum downtime as per the

conditions specified in the SLA [Service Level Agreement].

B.) RESULT INDICATORS

1. Key Performance

a. The project though mainly intended as a G2G project with the various departments as stakeholders it

has gone beyond the expected levels wherein the general public started co-operating with the initiative

through the newly introduced IVRS assisted TOLL FREE. Valuable information on missed out public

lands, encroachments in public lands are being informed by the general public thus giving a non-

intended G2C phase to the initiative. However, the initiative is mainly helping the various departments

especially the Revenue department in planning and execution of the activities of Government which

requires information on Government land, within no time. The reports on Government lands towards

implanting the schemes or transferring of land from one department to another etc. are being collected

directly from the site thus saving lot of time and energy. The site www.kslb.kerala.gov.in also helps the

business community to plan projects as per the availability of Government lands, thus indirectly it is

serving the G2B as well. Getting the details of government land to avert the transaction of the same was

a distant dream for the registration department now the information is at the finger tips

b. In the income generation front since the KSLB will be the sole agency in the state which will act as the

custodian of leasable / licensable Government lands, the entire management of lease cases will be

carried out through the online Lease Alert System [LAS] which is at the final stage of implementation.

This would help the Government in maximizing the returns through timely collection of leases without

any lapses.

During the 12 th Plan Period KSLB is planning to enter in to new sector wherein the KSLB will

act as a Land Transaction consultants in the Government sector which will buy land from agencies

like Commercial Banks who are finding it difficult to manage the attached lands during loan recovery

process. Besides this the KSLB will buy land from open market to reduce forced / distress sale by the

land owners in the state. The KSLB after the inventorisation process is going to prepare a

comprehensive list of saleable [Units of 3 cents each] lands. Such Government lands which will be

available for the low / medium / high income group of landless people with a vision on development of

rural areas. The exhaustive list of such lands will be on display in the website www.kslb.kerala.gov.in

and in media so that, people can apply for such notified land. This type of allotment, based on the quota

of allotment will be as per Kerala Land Assignment Rules, 1964 which curbs the misuse of such allotted

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land. The quota for each category will be fixed based on economic and social backwardness of the

applicant and after being cleared by the respective Taluk Land Assignment Committees [TLAC].

Towards finding out the beneficiaries statewide the list of landless citizens in the state has already been

prepared online towards making the state a zero landless citizens state by 2015. For more details visit

www.zerolandless.kerala.gov.in and for seeing the list of beneficiaries prepared online visit the “Public

corner” section of www.zerolandless.kerala.gov.in.

Besides this the land in the commercially important sites will be put to auction for inviting

commercial projects from Public / Private Sector agencies on BOT basis for 25-30 years. The building

plans approved by KSLB, will alone be allowed at such sites mainly towards infrastructure

development in the state using the NRK funds. It is planned to make it fully transparent with online

facilities.

Towards protecting large extents Government lands in rural areas from encroachment with a

better public attention Tree Banks will be established this year with trees like Mahagoni, Teak,

Rosewood and Sandal wood with multipurpose objectives of environmental protection, better returns

from Government lands, sustainable income for the Government, protection from encroachment,

measure to meet future wood requirement of the society etc. This sub programme will be introduced

this year under the annual activity of KSLB. A system and satellite based monitoring of the growth of

tress will be ensured once the project is launched

The KSLB with its own machinery and with the help of local revenue officials has been

undertaking the surveillance activities of the Government lands. Towards giving a new fillip to this

activity creation a Public Land Protection Force (PLPF) has been introduced this year [refer

www.kslb.kerala.gov.in – activities so far]. The personnel from PLPF and the Village Officers will sign

the Beat Registers to be kept near the on monthly intervals so as to assure two inspections to a site in a

month. Efforts are on to make this system based so that using GPRS the rate of surveillance of the

various personnel can be monitored by sitting in state Head Quarters.

A Toll Free Number 1800 425 5255 has already been established towards reporting of

encroachments of public lands by the general public and also to inform about the Government lands

which are left out from inclusion in the website. The toll free number is made Interactive Voice

Response System [IVRS] during the annual plan period 2012-13.

c. The project has been planned as executed on a statewide scale. The future plans has already been

enumerated in the foregoing section

2. Efficiency and Improvement Initiatives

The Kerala State Land Bank is a multiuse initiative wherein the following benefits could be achieved

already:

o With the successful initiation of the project itself the Government and the public would be in a position

to recognize which all are the public lands in the state

• More and more Government lands could traced out with the peoples' participation through valuable

information from the public through phone messages, complaints etc.

• The data base would act as a ready reference for the Government, to plan and formulate development

programmes without going for costly land acquisitions

• People Participatory Eviction Approach to evict the encroachments on Government lands

• Centralised control and management of leases through the Lease Alert System[LAS].

• The Government lands is being managed and monitored in a better manner

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• The return from Government lands will be enhanced many fold through better and professional

management

• Timely action against encroachments and time expired leases through alerting systems

• More transparent land transactions by the Government is ensured

b. Specific innovative ideas implemented in e-Gov area and their impact on services.

The following are the unique features of initiative;

� This is the first, foremost and even now the only initiative of this kind in the entire

country

� It is the only system in India wherein the entire Government land transaction is

subjected to public scrutiny

� In this project each and every bit of Government land is being assigned with a 12 digit

unique code for the easy retrieval of the data by the users [ much ahead of the

introduction of UID initiative by GoI]

� The entire planning and execution has been purely internal and there are no outside or

hired consultants for the project. It is financially independent on that count.

� The entire automation process and software in use are Free and Open Source Software

[FOSS] which make the project financially independent for the future on account of

version changes in the software

� The entire staff has been trained in the Software internally through the “On the Job In-

house Training Programme” [refer www.clr.kerala.gov.in ] and all form within the

department. This make the project independent on the Human resource side as well

� The entire system has been developed and are being sustained purely through

“Internal Resource Mobilisation” on account of human resources

� It is the only project in the World where the entire financial deals are put on the website

for the public scrutiny on day today basis towards social audit of the project [refer

www.clr.kerala.gov.in – Funds & Utilization]

� It is the only project in the World where the entire monthly wise performance of the

employees are put on the website towards ensuring social accountability of the project

[refer www.clr.kerala.gov.in – Progress report]

� A specialized force PLPF [Public Land protection Force] for the protection of

Government land is being introduced in the Department as part of this initiative

� For the benefit of the public an Interactive Voice Response System [IVRS] is being

introduced to make the Public Reporting system on encroachment and new cases, 24X7.

c. The extent of integration of this e-Governance initiative with other internal and/or external ICT systems:

Towards ensuring good Land Governance in the state two initiatives have been introduced in the year

2007-08 by Government of Kerala namely the Kerala State Land Bank project and ReLIS [REvenue Land

Information System]-a version 2.0 of Land record computerization programme now being pursued

under the NLRMP [National Land Record Computerisation Programme] under the auspices of State IT

cell-Revenue. Both these initiatives are working in close association with a common project leader. Both

these initiatives are also linked to the new ICT based initiative Zero Landless [Citizens] Kerala,2015

project aimed at creating an error free online database of the landless citizens of the state for the first

time in the history of the state and to make the state a zero landless citizens state by 2015. For more

details visit www.zerolandless.kerala.gov.in.

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As both the initiatives involve systematic and sustainable fostering it would be brought permanently

under the proposed “Land Governance Society of Kerala” a Programme Management Unit under National

Land Record Modernization Programme [NLRMP].

C.) ENABLER INDICATORS

1. Process reengineering

a. Major ICT and Non-ICT front-end process changes that were planned and the extent to

which the plans have been implemented: The major front end process planned was the launch of the

website soon after the completion of Inventorisation of government lands in atleast one district which

was done on 18.02.2012 well before the planned period. It has been planned to host the details in the

website on realtime basis and it has been done. The online Lease Alert System [LAS] wherein the

officials will be getting the details of the “to be renewed” government leases 45 days in advance of the

expiry in their mobile phone is being planned for introducing the same this year, which would

revolutionize the whole process of lease management in Government lands

b. Major ICT and Non-ICT back-end process changes that were planned and the extent to

which the plans have been implemented: Setting up of the office could be done as per the plan. The

completion of textual data entry could be completed as per plan of all the reported cases. It has been

planned to complete the digitization of the survey sketches of the entire 27 348 land parcels by mid 2013

and it is expected that it would be achieved. The introduction of PLPF, IVRS for the TOLL FREE etc.

could be launched well before the planned period.

2. Capacity Building

a. The entire systems are developed internally and the staff of the department is trained internally to take

up the challenges in the project. Since most of the employees are working in the project on “working

arrangement” basis their capacity development would be helpful for the department in the long run.

b. The reporting of the details of the Government lands between various revenue offices has been almost

stopped and everyone refer the site for getting the details. Also for initiating cases against the

encroachments the Village Officers download sketches from the site which were unheard before. The site

also gives valuable information on various Acts and Rules and procedures followed for the governance of

Government lands

c. Capacity building plan and its implementation status: Capacity is build up internally in a systematic

manner during the changes due to transfers and promotions. The application training is given in the first

week of posting and they pick up the things very fats thanks to the ICT base of the employees

d. Project management & Monitoring adopted [whether full or part-time program management teams in

place, roles and responsibilities of department officials/consultants etc]: The project monitoring is done

online on realtime basis by the higher level officials and the general public at the same time. Since the

monthly “progress report” of the project is available in the website a “social scrutiny” of the

activities/performance is also ensured for the project. The task of project management is mainly

entrusted with the Special Officer for the Land Bank project who is professionally qualified for doing

the same.

e. Financial model adopted [Source of funds, description of PPP if any, Total cost of ownership etc]: The

Kerala State Land Bank project is a purely 100% state plan model and the financial details of the project

is available in the “Funds & Utilisation” section of the website www.kslb.kerala.gov.in . This ensures

Social Auditing of the project as well.

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f. Additional efforts to ensure sustainability of the e-Governance initiative[s] [including but not limited to

carrying out of third-party assessment[s] and implementation of their recommendations where feasible

etc]: The relevance of the project itself is based on its usability of its for the Government which in turn

automatically creates an awareness among the stakeholders who decide on the sustainability of the

project. The project has been a well appreciated one in the state which itself is a base for the

sustainability especially in a state like Kerala which banks heavily on the IT assisted land governance

initiatives.

3. Technology

a. Description of the Technological solution adopted [including maintenance model] and it’s compliance

with NeGP standards: The website has been developed in MySQL and the software which is used for

the spatial data digitization is Collabland. The add-on solutions have been developed internally

utilizing the services of the department officials only.

b. Security and confidentiality standards planned and the level of compliance: For the physical security of

the data daily back up is ensured. The firewall protection is available and above all the site is hosted in

the state data centre which has protective tools of international standards. Fire fighting equipments and

24X7 web cam surveillance is also maintained in the office. Website has been subjected to cyber security

tests on periodical basis by the State agencies dedicated for the same. All the suggestions of the agency

are complied within the shortest period of time.

c. Strategy planned for Disaster Recovery and service continuity and the level of compliance: The daily

back of the data and the inhouse developed solutions are the greatest strengths of the project. Since all

the solutions are developed in FOSS it is generally 100% virus free. Since the launch of the site it has

been on 24X7 and 365 days.

D.) VALUE INDICATORS

1. Digital Inclusion

Language, demographic and Cultural differences may result in certain types of stakeholders not getting

fully benefitted from e-Governance initiatives.

a. Describe the specific steps taken to address this factor: Since Kerala is a state with very good IT

knowledge especially on the services the website has been frequently visited by the various

stakeholders. All the required details are available both in English as well as local Malayalam language.

The issues with respect to lack of benefit due to differences in demography and culture is out of place

since it is a web service.

2. Green e-Governance

Green e-Governance is about application of Green computing practices to the domain of e-Governance. It

involves adoption of environmentally friendly practices with respect to creation, use, and disposal of ICT facilities.

There are several dimensions to green e-Governance and prominent among these relate to Power and

Paper consumption, and disposal of e-Waste.

a. Describe the specific steps taken to address the factor: The AC is maintained at 26OC at all times inside

the office to save electricity in the office, the office is maintained as a paperless office as almost all

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communications are done through e Mails. The question of e Waste is out of place as of now as most of

the systems are maintained under a perfect AMC with a model SLA and all the solutions are created in

FOSS.

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