Karnataka plans digital survey option for citizens

The Karnataka government is considering a plan to allow citizens to draw their own boundaries inside properties, a reform that has the potential to keep officials away from private lands as well as clear the huge backlog of applications for survey work.

The Revenue Department under R Ashoka is still working out the modalities of this plan.

According to a senior officer, the plan is to let citizens draw lines on their properties on Dishaank, the government app that helps people identify land. The self-survey, the officer added, will be an optional feature and citizens can still make use of government-appointed surveyors.

Karnataka has 2.5 crore landholdings or plots. A survey becomes necessary when a plot has multiple owners and the boundaries need to be determined.

“Our people will prepare the digital sketch of the property. This digital sketch will be given to people and they can draw lines to indicate sub-plots,” the officer said, adding that the plan is to start this facility in the next 2-3 months.

The digital sketches prepared by the government will be geo-referenced to ensure no one can draw lines on someone else's property.

This is the 11E sketch, which outlines the portion of land that is up for sale and is a crucial document required for transaction. This sketch is prepared by a surveyor manually. Once a particular portion of land is surveyed, a survey number is generated.

The plan to allow citizens to survey their own land is a response to the huge pendency of applications: at least 1.92 lakh survey applications are stuck at various levels. In fact, Revenue Minister R Ashoka admitted recently that the pendency was so huge that the waiting time is 8-10 months.

“There are also chances of citizens facing harassment at the hands of surveyors. So, if this plan goes through, then surveyors need not visit private properties for survey work,” the officer said.

To make sure the right person does the survey on the Dishaank app, the government plans to make Aadhaar mandatory. “Any person whose name is in the record of rights, tenancy and crops (RTC) can do the survey. We will take Aadhaar and verify the name,” the officer said.

However, the government has no plans yet to let citizens draw the outer boundaries of a plot (hudbusth). “The current plan involves letting citizens draw boundaries within a plot only,” the officer specified.