Digital database of Dhaka city land survey finalized

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Fazlur Rahman
The government has prepared a digital database of land surveys of Dhaka city for publishing on the internet as part of its move to modernise the old record system.
The Directorate of Land Records and Surveys under the Ministry of Land has finalised the digital database of all designs and ledgers of the city to update the land record system and make them transparent, technology-based and people-friendly, ministry officials said.
The officials said the supplicants are forced to resort to corruption and face harassment at both land and registration offices when they go to collect copies of records and surveys as
the government's preservation and distribution systems have not developed due to lack of modern 'mouza' maps and ledgers.
"Under the existing system, the design is distorted and bounded number of land becomes obscure, creating problems in fixing amount of land and its boundary," said a ministry official adding that limited copies of designs and ledgers mean unscrupulous people get enough scope to destroy or distort the manual land record.
The directorate has completed the digitisation of around 0.42 million (4.20 lakh) ledgers of the city's 191 'mouzas', in the hope that the digital database will protect the beneficiaries from hassles and help reduce the number of disputes originating from the existing system.
Under the digitisation project, a link between digital databases of all 'mouza' maps and ledgers has also been established.
Bangladesh Computer Council will act as web-host to publish the digital database of land records.
"All preparations have been completed. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to inaugurate the database soon," said a ministry official.
He said the digital database would allow the beneficiaries to see the ledgers of survey and 'mouza' map through internet instead of visiting land offices.

"It will allow the authorities as well as the beneficiaries to avoid future troubles through timely modification of errors, if any," the official said.
The shift from paper-based database to digital database will allow preserving land-related essential documents, which not only will reduce forgery in land purchases and sales, but also increase transparency to a large extent.
"At the end of the day, the transparent record will increase government's revenue collection, reduce number of land-related suits and help prepare land use policy, introduce land zoning and boost access to information," the land ministry official told the FE.
Experts say most of the existing land survey records in land offices, including the Cadastral Survey (CS), conducted in 1890-1940, and Revisional Settlement (RS), conducted in 1969-83, are in printed form, but they have worn out and are easy to forge.
The land survey documents should be digitised immediately to provide prompt service as well as keep records updated, they say.
A high-powered government taskforce said in its recent report that the present land management system has been causing not only economic losses but also social unrest, corruption and chaos in family life.
It identified land disputes as the main reason for not less than 70 to 80 per cent civil and criminal cases in the country. At present about 3.2 million land-related cases are pending with courts, sources said.