Tribhuwan University

Institute of Science and Technology

College of Applied Business and Technology

Gangahiti, Kathmandu

Case Study on BHOOMI

Submitted By: Submitted To Department of CSIT

Name: Roshan Bhusal. Checked By: Sohan Bhatt
Roll No.:127/17

Contents
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................- 1 -
OBJECTIVE...............................................................................................................................................- 1 -
A Brief History.........................................................................................................................................- 2 -
IMPLEMENTATION..................................................................................................................................- 3 -
Stakeholder.........................................................................................................................................- 3 -
Beneficiaries........................................................................................................................................- 3 -
Integration as key solution..................................................................................................................- 4 -
CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................................................- 5 -
REFERENCE..............................................................................................................................................- 5 -
INTRODUCTION
In Karnataka State, the land records were earlier maintained through a manual system, involving
9,000 village accountants, each serving a cluster of 3–4 villages. Nearly 2,500 bank branches in
Karnataka loan approximately Rs. 40 billion to farmers as working capital every year. The concept of
Computerized Land Records Management Process was first introduced in Karnataka through the
BHOOMI initiative in 2001 to bring in overall transparency, effectiveness and ease in the management
and maintenance of the Land Records through automation of various processes. The major objectives to
be fulfilled by the Bhoomi project were:

 Facilitating easy maintenance and prompt updating of land records

 Making land records tamper-proof
 Allowing farmers easy access to their records
 Collating the information to construct a data base regarding land revenue, cropping pattern,
land use, etc
 Utilising the data for planning and for formulating development programmes.

Through this initiative, Revenue Department in Karnataka has computerized 200 lakh records of land
ownership of 67 lakh farmers in the state.

OBJECTIVE
In the Land Records Domain, the ‘Record of Rights, Tenancy and Crops’ (RTC) is maintained,
updated by the Government and is needed by farmers for various purposes such as - for obtaining crop
loans, hypothecation of land, getting electricity connection, subsidies, sale of land, creating partition
deeds, etc. Land records also form the basis to carry out mutations such as changes in ownership title
due to inheritance, sale, acquisition etc.

Provision of RoR documents to citizens in hassle-free manner has always been priority for every
Government administration. It is estimated that over 30 million cases are pending in various courts in
country only for land related disputes. Transparency in the processes of land administration such as
registration, transfer, paying taxes, availing farm credit, getting government lands granted, getting
government lands on lease, land acquisition etc., is essential to remove corruption from land
administration. This case study will help understand the project domain, execution challenges, resource
management and various aspects for citizen service delivery improvements.

Most significant achievement and the transformation of BHOOMI project has come through the
electronic integration with stakeholders like Registration Department, land acquiring bodies and banks
& financial institutions. These electronic integrations have resulted in reducing / removing human
discretion and streamlined the various land records administration activities making Records of Right
current with respect to various activities happening in the external environment pertaining to land
records.

Usage of ICTs to build e-Governance systems will go a long way in bringing transparency and
thereby reducing corruption and improving quality of land records. The basic characteristics of a well-
designed e-Governance system such as audit trail, data integrity, role-based access and data security will
bring in much required traceability, accountability and reliability required for any land administration
system. Open access to data and the transparent and traceable mutation process has also reduced the
number of disputes. e-Governance system can monitor the activities only after transactions / process
data are digitally captured completely. Integration of Bhoomi with Registration Software, Land acquiring
Bodies and Banks was a major step in bringing uniqueness to the Land Records System. Independent
evaluation studies have shown that Bhoomi has significantly reduced corruption and improved service
delivery.

A Brief History
Previously, farmers were solely dependent on Village Accountant (Village Level functionary of
Revenue Department in Karnataka) to get a copy of the Record of Rights, Tenancy and Crops (RTC). RTC
is a document needed for many tasks such as obtaining bank loans, selling properties, creating partition
deeds etc. There were delays and harassment. The traditional process for the management and
maintenance of the land records document was completely manual and paper-based. The process was
extremely complex leading to harassment of stakeholders including revenue administration, judiciary,
and registration officials and most importantly, to the citizens.

BHOOMI, a land records management system implemented by Government of Karnataka with

National Informatics Centre as technical partner is a fine example of how e-Governance systems can
bring reforms in the area of land administration. Revenue Department in Karnataka has computerized
200 lakh records of land ownership of 67 lakh farmers in the state. All the Record of Rights (RoR)
documents have been verified and certified by the revenue authorities before making digital database as
it is the only source of land records. Manual records have been invalidated through amendment to
Karnataka Land Revenue Rules 1964.

Any changes to record of rights will happen through online mutation application (BHOOMI) only.
Online mutation application handles all types of mutation so that no manual intervention in updating
land records database is required. Workflow based user-friendly software has been designed and
developed by National Informatics Centre, Bangalore and has bio-metric authentication to take care of
non-repudiation and scanning interface to scan important documents as evidence for electronic
transaction. PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) enabled BHOOMI database and application with integration
of digital signatures is in place to adhere to IT act 2000. On an average BHOOMI software handles more
than one lakh mutations a month. About 9,000 Village Accountants, 800 Revenue Inspectors, 203
Sheristedars, 1000 Operators-cum-Village Accountants, 203 Tahsildars and 52 Assistant Commissioners
work on the system based on clear-cut roles and privileges given to them.

The updation of the Land Records is the key in the overall process of the Land Records while
designing the Bhoomi solution. It has built-in workflow automation, which moves transactions from one
officer to another electronically and has been developed in local language (Kannada) to facilitate ease of
use. It also takes care of security aspects and thus has provisions for foolproof authentication system
instead of traditional password based authentication system where it allows documents such as RTC,
mutation extract etc to be digitally signed.
IMPLEMENTATION
Even though BHOOMI had become operational in 2001 in most of the taluks in Karnataka, most
of its interfaces with other stakeholders were manual in nature. For example, when a change of
ownership or transaction takes place, applicant files request for initiating the mandatory process known
as mutation for effecting necessary changes in the ROR. Mutation requests after registration (popularly
called as ‘J-slips’) in sub registrar’s office were sent in paper form to Tahsildar for carrying out mutation
to bring name of the new purchaser in record of rights. This process was still manual and time
consuming with multiple human touch points and hassles to farmers. Also, in pre-BHOOMI days and till
2011 during BHOOMI implementation, for the notifications received from different land acquiring
bodies, data entry had to be done by Application Kiosk operator and then BHOOMI back office had to
process the mutation. As a result most of the land acquisitions were not getting updated on record of
rights and RoRs were not depicting the actual ground reality on the paper. Non updation of such
important data results in huge loss to purchaser as owner of such acquired lands would have lost all
rights on the lands. Not only this, the Government also is involved in Land Acquisition for various
development purposes of canal building, road development, rehabilitation, village/town extension,
culverts, reservoirs, military camps, railways, industries, etc. Since, the Land records were already
computerised in Bhoomi, Government decided to extend the integration project with the Land Acquiring
bodies in the state.

These are transactions wherein citizen pledges his land to banks or cooperative institutions for
getting farm credit or released the property after paying back the loan.

Stakeholder
The stakeholder segment for Land Records System is a huge base starting from Highest
Administrative unit in Government functionary to rural farmers.

Beneficiaries
The integration of BHOOMI with Kaveri, Bhooswadeena and Banks was the key step for
realization of actual benefits of Land Records Management System.

o Electronic Integration of Bhoomi with Kaveri – Citizens, Department of Stamps and

Registration and Revenue Administration
o Electronic Integration of Bhoomi with Bhooswadeena – Citizens, Revenue
Administration / Land Acquiring bodies and Agencies who have requested land
acquisition
 o Electronic Integration of Bhoomi with Banks – Citizen, Banks and Revenue
Administration

Integration as key solution

The interfaces of Bhoomi project were to be enhanced to bring in online data exchange from
various stakeholder sources like Registration Department, land acquiring bodies, banks and
most importantly deliver seamless services to citizens. As a part of complete end to end
computerization and interdepartmental integration, 3 major innovative steps were taken by the
Government of Karnataka, which includes

o In 2010 concept of electronic integration of ‘BHOOMI’ and ‘KAVERI’ was conceptualized

and piloted in five taluks. The integration with registration software was a key to get rid
of malpractices in sale deeds. This integration was also going to be helpful for all citizens
who had to go to Land records office post registration with physical papers. Because
unless transaction is initiated on BHOOMI with these cases received in paper, Bhoomi
solution had no means to locate the land deals Hence, Government of Karnataka took
this ambitious and innovative step to integrate the Bhoomi System with Registration
Department.
o In the Land Acquisition cases, it was difficult for solutions to exchange the data between
Bhoomi and Land Acquisition software BHOOSWADEENA. Operator had to manually
enter the land acquisition cases post the acquisition. Also there were no means to
command and identify the land acquisitions at run time. So, Electronic integration of
‘BHOOMI’ with ‘BHOOSWADEENA’ (Land Acquisition software in Karnataka) commenced
in 2011. Project is currently running successfully in all 52 sub division offices of revenue
department.
 o Volume of applications that were being received from the banks and co-operative
institutions for creating liabilities on the land were huge and hence resulted in time
delay. Revenue department therefore decided to integrate BHOOMI and Bank activities
electronically. Electronic integration of ‘BHOOMI’ with ‘Banks’ was started in 2012 to
bring in banks as an active stakeholder in Land processes.

CONCLUSION
In this case study, the Bhoomi project has been surveyed in detail with all aspects of
introduction, objective, implementation of the software. BHOOMI is a great success. On the lines similar
to Bhoomi, many other States such as Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Gujarat, and Madhya
Pradesh have also successfully implemented Land Records MIS.

REFERENCE
E-Governance book KEC Publication
Bhoomi_Case Study_v1.0.pdf (darpg.gov.in)
04_bhoomi.pdf (csi-sigegov.org)