THE Land Record Management Information System has recently computerised Punjab’s entire record of 55m-acre, while making the database current. The system will significantly improve the security of ownership and reduce land litigation.

By making land conveyance convenient, the LRMIS will also facilitate banks in extending credit to farmers.

No doubt, the land computerisation should improve the social condition in Punjab’s 134 tehsils, where power is traditionally embedded in the land, and, as a result, so is litigation and many social ills.

After the computerisation, the powers of dreaded patwari — the lower rung revenue officer, known for manipulation of land record for money and their influence — have been clipped. With land going online, those powers should stand substantially reduced, especially if the new system is made to work efficiently.

So far, Conceding the teething problems, the managers term both of them initial system hiccups, which would be removed with the the farmers are cautious; the record put online does not fully serve them for two reasons: the system is still being run by humans who have the same ambitions as the patwaris, and the record has certain loopholes which are exploitable by those managing it.

Conceding the teething problems, LRMIS managers term them as initial system hiccups which will be removed with the passage of time

Conceding the teething problems, LRMIS managers term then as initial system hiccups which will be removed with the passage of time. One only hopes that these problems wither away early.

The initial problems need to be resolved quickly for accurate basis of land taxation, improved land surveys, passing on the official benefits to farmers, which would actually multiply the benefits of this land digitisation.

The new system could bring in two immediate benefits: bank credit lines and agricultural planning. The entire land record has been a suspect with the banking collateral being open to manipulation at any stage, deterring many banks and other formal lenders from agricultural financing. With this computer-based documentation, banks should find lending much easier, backed by a solid collateral.

The new system would also open a new vista in marketing and investment on land, the entire land’s location and its ownership being only a click away. The government subsidies, if any, could be directly transferred to farmers and their produce sale, especially the one landing in official stocks, could directly be transferred to the farmer concerned.

If the same system is linked to satellite systems, it would not be difficult for the provincial government to read crop position of not only the province, but of individual farmers as well. This data could then easily form basis for more credible national and provincial planning by various tiers.

One could caution some major risks in the system itself. The Indian experience at Karnataka only exposed the ills it could introduce in the system: illiterate farmers unable to utilise it properly, which accentuated their problems; hackers finding one point entry to manipulate the entire data; and a new breed of patwaris in the form of system operators fleecing the hapless farmers.

Published in Dawn, Business & Finance weekly, April 4th, 2016