Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda launches ‘Bhu Suraksha’, programme for digitising land records in the Bengaluru Urban district administration, at the deputy commissioner’s office in Bengaluru on Tuesday.
Credit: DH PHOTO/KISHOR KUMAR BOLAR
Bengaluru: Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda on Tuesday launched the “Bhu Suraksha” programme of digitising land records in the Bengaluru Urban district administration, which he said would deal a big blow to the “land mafia” in the state capital.
Gowda launched the programme at the record room in Bengaluru Urban deputy commissioner Jagadeesha G’s office.
“In and around Bengaluru, land documents have been fudged. Some officials too were involved in this, causing huge losses to the government. The government has had to face defeats in court cases because of fake documents. Public assets have been systematically usurped by land sharks in the past. Through “Bhu Suraksha,” we want to end this menace,” Gowda said.
Officials have been asked to send suspicious documents for forensics testing, Gowda said. “We’re ready provide funds for this purpose. If there are bogus documents, we’re ready to fight up until the Supreme Court,” he said.
Gowda said an estimated 100 crore pages of land documents are stored at all tahsildar offices in the state. “Of them, 35.36 crore have been scanned. Another 35 crore pages are pending. This work has been limited to tahsildar offices. It has been decided to take it up in the offices of assistant commissioners and deputy commissioners. The work of scanning land documents has started from the Bengaluru Urban DC’s office,” Gowda said.
Gowda said an average of 10,000 pages were being scanned daily at tahsildar offices. “This will increase in the coming days. By December this year, all land documents in tahsildar offices will be scanned. By March 2026, scanning of documents in the record rooms of AC offices will be completed,” the minister said.
Under the “Bhu Suraksha” programme, digitised land records will be made available to citizens online.
“For decades, farmers are being harassed when it comes to making original documents available to them. Documents are also manipulated. Genuine farmers end up making multiple visits to government offices and courts. Also, middlemen harass farmers. We want free farmers from this harassment. Record rooms should be available at the fingertips of citizens,” Gowda said.