The President of India Smt. Droupadi Murmu presented the “Bhoomi Samman” today to 9 State Secretaries and 68 District Collectors along with their teams in the august presence of Shri Faggan Singh Kulaste, Minister of State, Steel & Rural Development and Shri Kapil Moreshwar Patil, Minister of State Panchayati Raj.

The certificates were received by the State Secretaries and District Collectors along with their teams who have excelled in achieving saturation of the core components of Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme (DILRMP). In her address, the President said that acceleration of rural development is essential for the overall development of the country. For the development of rural areas, modernization of land records is a basic requirement as the livelihood of most of the rural population is dependent on land resources. A comprehensive integrated land management system is of utmost importance for the overall development of rural areas.

The President said that digitization increases transparency. Modernization and digitization of land records would have a great impact on the development of the country. Digitization of land records and its linkages with various government departments would help in proper implementation of welfare schemes. It would also be of great help in case of loss of documents due to calamities like flood and fire.

The President was happy to note that under the Digital India Land Information Management System, a Unique Land Parcel Identification Number is being provided which could be useful like Aadhaar Card. She stated that this number would help in making proper use of the lands as well as forming and implementing new welfare schemes. Linking of E-Courts with land records and registration data-base would have many benefits. The transparency that is coming from digitization would curb unethical and illegal activities related to land. The President said that access to land related information in a free and convenient manner would have many benefits. For example, it would help in resolving disputes related to ownership and use of land.               She stated that a large population of our country is involved in disputes related to land and a lot of time of the administration and the judiciary is consumed in these matters. Through digitization and linkages of information, the energy of the people and institutions, which gets consumed in resolving disputes, would be utilized for development.

Shri Faggan Singh Kulaste, Minister of State, Steel & Rural Development in his address stated that Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj has directed that all benefits of schemes should reach the citizens in the last mile as envisaged by the Prime Minister. He highlighted the importance of the Bhoomi Samman event in encouraging the States and Districts in achieving 100% saturation of the DILRMP scheme components. He further stressed that Digitization process of land records and registration will help mitigate the huge pendency of court cases involving land disputes cutting down the GDP loss to the country’s economy due to projects being stalled over litigation involving land disputes. Shri Kulaste emphasized that this Department had initiated performance based grading in six core components of DILRMP. The grading has been done on the basis of performance of Districts as reflected in Management Information System (MIS) of DILRMP and as reported by the State/UT Governments.

Shri Kapil Moreshwar Patil, Minister of State Panchayati Raj in his address emphasized the importance of technology and education. He highlighted that technology is the one big and defining step in enabling the citizens and ensuring ease of living for citizens of the country.

Shri Ajay Tirkey, Secretary, Department of Land Resources, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India in his welcome address, stated that the Bhoomi Samman Scheme was drawn up by Shri Giriraj Singh, Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj targeting saturation of scheme of Digitization of Land Records and 68 districts of the country have been selected for Bhoomi Samman after scrutiny.

A book titled “Bhoomi Samman – Best practices in Land Governance by States and Districts in India”  was also unveiled and first copy was presented to the President. The event also showcased a film on Platinum Certificate Ranking Scheme / DILRMP. The event was attended by the District teams of Revenue/Registration Departments led by District Magistrates/District Collectors/DCs of 68 Districts along with representatives of State Revenue/Registration Departments of concerned States, representatives from line Ministries/Departments of Government of India, Private Sector and Industries and other stakeholders, along with representatives of all States/ UTs, and other officials.

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