Ranchi, May 13: East Singhbhum will be the first district in the state to have a “Karnataka-style” computerised land record system according to a decision taken by the government.

For this purpose, the government has decided to import the state-of-the-art “Bhoomi” software developed by the Bangalore-based National Informatics Centre, which is in use at all the 177 talukas in Karnataka. Though the software is currently available in Kannada language, officials said it was being adapted in both English and Hindi for users in Jharkhand.

Jharkhand, along with Bihar, ranks last in the field of land record management. While Karnataka is in the process of digitising its land maps after computerising land records, Jharkhand is taking the first step in putting its land records online.

Land officials told The Telegraph that of the 22 districts in the state, East Singhbhum was the only one where land survey began as late as in 1965 and was finally completed in 1995 after 28 years. “Land surveys in unified Bihar commenced as early as in 1932 during the British Raj,” said an official. However, since one district or a number of districts are taken up at a time for survey necessitating the deployment of an army of field workers, officials said in East Singhbhum, the survey could only commence 33 years after Independence. “The survey records of East Singhbhum was published in 1995. Since East Singhbhum was the last district to be surveyed, the state government has chosen it to launch the computerised system of land record management,” officials said.

Giving details, officials said the software would have an in-built system of recording both present and historical data of every plot beginning with the last survey and ending with its present status along with digital maps.

In addition,Bhoomi would include an online system to carry out “mutation” on the live data facilitating the sale and purchase of land between parties in faraway places. The software would generate all the necessary documents .

“To prevent tampering of data, the system could be integrated with ‘fingerprint’ technology to ensure a foolproof system instead of the traditional password system,” officials said. According to them, the biggest hurdle was the enormous cost involved in the implementation of the software as the initial cost for one taluk was estimated at anything between Rs 10 lakh to Rs 12 lakh.

However, they said most of the expenses are required for preliminary data entry, though the cost is offset by the numerous advantages in the long run.