LROs now well-equipped to provide swift services
KATHMANDU, SEP 03 -
Registration of land and property transactions are now becoming easier and faster, thanks to the computerisation of land revenue and survey offices across the country.
According to the Department of Land Information and Archive (DoLIA), 82 of the total 83 land revenue offices, and 29 out of the 83 survey have already been computeralised. Likewise, 29 of the total 83 survey offices have been computerised so far. “The computerised land revenue offices now keep land ownership records and other relevent details about plots of land that have been frozen,” said Dron Pokharel, chief of the department.
According to the DoLIA, out of the 82 offices that were computerised, 42 provide digitally printed land ownership certificates, while 40 others just update land transactions on computers.
It now plans to upgrade 15 offices such that they could provide digitally printed land ownership certificates. All the land revenue offices (LROs) in Kathmandu Valley and important LROs outside the valley, including those based in Chitwan, Jhapa, Morang, Rupandehi, Banke, Kailali, Kanchanpur, Kaski, Parbat and Syangja among others now provide land ownership certificates in a digitally printed form. “During the printing of land ownership certificates, the information related to the transactions are automatically updated,” said Pokhrel.
The LRO in Accham it the only one that does not have the facility. The office had lost all records of land registration and ownership during Maoists attacks during the period of insurgency. “A new land survey will be carried out in Accham before computerising the office,” said Pokhrel. The DoLIA had started computerising the land revenue offices from fiscal year 2008-09 under the Land Information System Programme.
Among the survey offices, cadastral maps in 29 survey offices have been digitised and prepared their geo-data base. The department has plans to digitise the cadastral maps of additional 23 survey offices this year.
Despite preparing maps in digital form, very few survey offices are providing services in digital format so far. “Until now, only survey office of Bhaktapur and Lalitpur are providing computer based services,” said Pokhrel. Computer based service means that survey offices can provide digitally printed map of the land and property to the people.
Three Kathmandu-based offices, including those in Dillibazaar, Kalanki and Chabahil are yet to provide computer based services.
According to the DoLIA, Dillibazaar survey office is scheduled to provide digitally prepared map to the people starting from September 17. Likewise, the Kalanki office is scheduled to provide such services from October 1, while the Chabahil office is expected to begin the service from October 17.
The government had started digitising the cadastral map from fiscal year 2009-10. According to the DoLIA, of the 83 survey offices, maps with the Accham and Arghakhanchhi offices are unlikely to be digitised soon due to destruction of documents during the conflict. The government has planned to launch a new survey to prepare maps in the districts which will also serve in the preparation of new data base in LRO, Achham. “Due to the limited trained manpower, we could not computerise all the survey and land revenue offices at once,” said Pokhrel. “But the progress that has been achieved so far is good given the existing poor record keeping.”
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Land Reforms and Management has directed all district based land revenue and survey offices to give top priority to proper record-keeping and safekeeping of documents related to land and property transactions. It has also instructed those offices to arrange budget for the land revenue, survey and land reform offices in the districts as per their work load.
The District Development Committees allocate five percent of the total land revenues collected from the district based LROs for the purpose of infrastructure development of offices concerned.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
