Secretary, Department of Land Resources, Ajay Tirkey has said that a dedicated Capacity Building Cell will be set up to address the specific requirements of North Eastern States on Digitization of land records. He also informed that each Autonomous Hill District Council (ADCs) in the North Eastern States will be supported by a dedicated team of officers of Department of Land Resources (DoLR), headed by a Director level officer.
As per a PIB report, Tirkey announced this while chairing a review meeting on Bhumi Samvaad VII with the theme “Land Governance in North Eastern States – Digitization Solutions for Tomorrow” at New Delhi on 24th November 2023.
The Secretary of DoLR informed that a dedicated cell will be constituted in DoLR to be headed by Director/Deputy Secretary level officer who will report to the Joint Secretary for steering the activities and work on solutions specific to ADCs. He emphasized the need to look within to identify gaps and how to overcome with support of States and ADCs within the confines of constitutional framework. He further pointed out that ADCs have different unique issues and mechanisms to address these issues.
Emphasizing that starting point of good governance across sectors is good land governance, he further expressed his happiness to note that now North Eastern States are also moving forward and a number of projects of digitization of land records have been sanctioned such as for Assam, Bodoland Territorial Council, Mizoram and Tripura. Tirkey assured the support of DoLR in actively associating in the project formulation and ensuring execution of activities in the right manner. The Secretary, DoLR requested all ADCs to send their proposals, PIB stated.
Earlier, he emphasized that providing good governance to people is the prime objective and all concerned need to ensure a commitment to move forward and that the challenge is to steer all efforts for effective land governance within the overall constitutional framework. He also stressed upon the point that States which have achieved saturation in Digitization of land records have moved ahead and leapfrogged in process of development.
He further emphasized that Digitization of land records is a prerequisite for effective implementation of development programs and schemes including infrastructure development as well as all social sector schemes. Tirkey expressed that it was hearting to see the realization of benefits of Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme (DILRMP) among the North Eastern States and ADCs and all will work together to achieve results in a time bound manner.
Joint Secretary, Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), Harpreet Singh highlighted the importance of land governance through Digitization of land records for promoting investment in various sectors and ensuring ease of doing business.
Bhumi Samvaad VII, organised by the Department of Land Resource, focused on review of DILRMP and other initiatives of North-Eastern States and ADCs of North-Eastern States and especially digitization solutions for the North Eastern States. On Friday, a meeting was held with the North Eastern States and to review progress under and other initiatives/ issues.
The conference had presentations on Action Plan of ADCs for implementation of DILRMP in their respective ADCs. The Action Plans discussed in details included year-wise Action Plan/ Physical / Financial targets and Progress of all components and preparedness like availability / deployment of Human Resources, Capacity Building and Timeline for completion of the plan. The conference also facilitated the exchange of knowledge and ideas, showcase innovations, share successful case studies, identify solutions, discuss future strategies and provide mutual learning opportunities on various complex and local issues on land governance in North Eastern States.
The Conference was attended by senior officials from State Revenue / Registration Departments and Inspector General of Registration from Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim; Chief Executive Officer of ADCs / Secretary to Executive Committee / Executive Secretary (ADCs); representative from B.N. Yugandhar Centre for Rural Studies of Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration Mussoorie (LBSNAA), Surveyor General of India, Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region, Government of India.
