Although the computerisation is aimed at making the system work at a faster pace, the very process is a slow process in the state of Orissa, India.

Way back in 1998, a project was launched in Ganjam district with the financial help from the Union Rural Development Ministry to computerise the tehsil offices and make the land records available in digital form.

The software for this project was developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and the Rural Development Ministry of the Central government had provided Rs 29 crore to computerise 171 tehsil offices in Orissa.

But the project has made little progress although more than seven years have elapsed. Only seven out of the 14 tehsils in the Ganam district have implemented the computerisation of land records. Even at those tehsils where the project was implemented the process is yet to become functional. As per the claims of the Revenue Department officials, the process of computerisation was over in Chatrapur, Purishottampur, Hinjli, Digapahandi, Chikiti and Aska. Although the computers were installed in the Kodala and Khallikote tehsils the digitalisation of land record data is yet to be completed. Computers are yet to be provided to other tehsils like Kanisi, Patrapur, Bhanjanagar, Biguda and Sorada.

But the computerised tehsil offices in Gnajam district also serve little purpose. The tehsil offices have not updated their records in the digital data. The officials are just issuing a few miscellaneous certificates and copies of records.

The tehsil offices say that they could not issue pattas for lands as the computer data base is not updated. Out of 141 villages in Berhampur Tehsil, data have been updated in 50 villages only. So, the Berhampur tehsil office is unable to issue pattas on fresh mutation cases. In the Berhampur tehsil, over 17,000 cases related to land issues are pending due to the crunch of human resources.

The very purpose of computerisation fails to bring the desirous result as there are not enough persons with computer knowledge. It is alleged that some rural tehsils have opted for the process just for the sake of name.

Yet, the plans are afoot to implement e-governance in the Ganam district. It is proposed to have a district data centre (DDC) and sub divisional data centres (SDDC) which will connect all tehsil offices. The proposed plan is to have the DDC at Chatrapur and three SDDCs at Chatrapur, Bhanjanagar and Berhampur. It has to be seen whether the plans will materialise and the general public will get a real feel of e-governance in the district.

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