Assam: Tech to ensure auditability of land records data launched

Guwahati: Secretary to the Department of Land Resources, Nidhi Khare, on Tuesday (February 13), rolled out the National Generic Document Registration System (NDGRS) throughout Assam along with the launch of Unique Land Parcel Identification Number (ULPIN) seeding of geo-referenced Cadastral Maps. 

Special Chief Secretary of Assam Syedain Abbasi launched the rollout of blockchain in land records in the state’s Darrang district as a pilot at an event organised by the Assam Revenue and Disaster Management department.

Addressing at the event, Khare pointed out that NGDRS, a project initiated by the Department of Land Resources, Union Ministry of Rural Development, is a common, generic application developed for registration departments across the country under the "One Nation One Software" initiative. 

Khare said that the NGDRS application is developed by NIC Pune and the Assam Instance of NGDRS is hosted in the State Data Centre (SDC). NDGRS in Assam was launched by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on November 14, 2022. Currently, NGDRS has been rolled out in SROs of two Districts, Kamrup and Darrang, and now NGDRS is rolled out in all the 77 SROs of Assam. 

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The Assam instance of NGDRS has been integrated with Dharitree for zonal value and location, NOC for party and land details, eGras for online payment, e-Stamp and citizen services of Sewa Setu (Non encumbrance Certificate, Certified Copy, Marriage Registration, Deed Registration). Auto-calculation of fees according to the articles is also enabled.

Khare also highlighted the importance of blockchain, one of the IT reforms initiated by Assam Revenue and Disaster Management, in order to bring radical transformation in land records management to ensure increased trust, auditability, traceability, and immutability of land records data. 

She further emphasised that the goal of securing land records with blockchain is to allow transactions to be recorded and distributed but not edited. Blockchain technology’s unique combination of cryptography and distributed network nodes allows data to be maintained and validated in the trusted ecosystem. 

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It was also pointed out that the ULPIN is taken as the unique blockchain ID and the land parcel is uniquely identified using ULPIN from Bhunaksha. Khare further explained that the ULPIN, a 14-digit alphanumeric identification number for every land parcel can be described as the AADHAR or fingerprint for land. 

The identification is based on the longitude and latitude of the land parcel and is dependent on geo-referenced cadastral maps. She further highlighted that the benefits of ULPIN are to ensure uniqueness in all transactions, keep the spatial records up to date, linking of property transactions, share land records data across departments, and financial institutions and eliminate fraudulent transactions. In NGDRS, the deed is digitally signed by the SRO and stored in the blockchain after the approval of the deed. 

Khare mentioned that blockchain will offer security, accountability and record scrutinisation from start to end. The district-level blockchain-based cadastre and land records registry pilot is launched in Darrang district and will be rolled out pan Assam shortly.