Upgrading land administration
Monday, 22 March 2010
THE disputes over land involve the greatest number of civil and criminal cases in the country. Litigations over land claims, ownership and related issues keep engaged the greater part of the capacities of the country’s legal system. The amounts of money drained by litigants in such land-related hassles are also very great. It would be possible to save a great deal of precious resources as well as energies and time both by individuals and the legal system if these land-related legal and illegal disputes could be kept limited in number. This would require the upgrading of the land administration or essentially the keeping, using and retrieving of land-related various records.
Presently, such records are largely kept in primitive conditions by today’s global standards. Leaking roofs in ill-maintained record rooms destroy hand-written records of decades ago from wetting and dampening. Besides, the present mode of keeping the records provides lucrative opportunities to their keepers in wasting time in the name of searching for them and also to tamper with them for the pecuniary gains. The media have been reporting from time to time how records even disappear from record rooms or falsified records are authenticated and given in return to bribes to unscrupulous record room keepers.
In fact, the entire system of land recording and using the same is shot through with scopes for corruption and taking of bribes at every step. Surveys to determine land ownership are carried out at very long intervals but the final records are not made available promptly. Thus, the results of some such surveys carried out earlier are yet to be finally published and titles to property have in many cases not been updated against the new owners properly following changes of ownership due to sale or inheritance.
One may cite here the case of the Dhaka City Survey that was carried out by the land office more than a decade ago. Its results were published and circulated only about a couple of years ago. But it is not yet being enforced. However, the latest report suggests that efforts are now underway to operationalise digital land records in areas under Dhaka city on the basis of the findings of the related survey. This should be done sooner than later. And steps should simultaneously be taken to computerise land records throughout the country in phases at an accelerated pace. If that is done, there will be fewer opportunities for land office officials to demand bribe for mutation in each case of registration; such officials make money under the table from providing, at times, dubious mutation certificates that in turn understandably lead to many litigations later on. All such scopes for bribery and paving the way for litigations can be avoided from timely completion of digital land records and enforcement of the new procedures at the fastest.
Indeed, a digitalised or computerised manner of keeping land records for all categories of users can be one of the effective solutions to many crimes, corruption and troubles faced in this area. The digitalisation process must not crawl on. Government leaders have been stating that they are very keen for ‘digital Bangladesh’. But the pace of digitalisation of the land record system is not at all encouraging. Clearly, the outmoded processes need to give way to complete digitalisation at the soonest. A comprehensive plan should be prepared for the purpose and it should be implemented with a sense of urgency. This is really a developmental issue of significance and the country cannot go on foot-dragging in this vital area.
Presently, such records are largely kept in primitive conditions by today’s global standards. Leaking roofs in ill-maintained record rooms destroy hand-written records of decades ago from wetting and dampening. Besides, the present mode of keeping the records provides lucrative opportunities to their keepers in wasting time in the name of searching for them and also to tamper with them for the pecuniary gains. The media have been reporting from time to time how records even disappear from record rooms or falsified records are authenticated and given in return to bribes to unscrupulous record room keepers.
In fact, the entire system of land recording and using the same is shot through with scopes for corruption and taking of bribes at every step. Surveys to determine land ownership are carried out at very long intervals but the final records are not made available promptly. Thus, the results of some such surveys carried out earlier are yet to be finally published and titles to property have in many cases not been updated against the new owners properly following changes of ownership due to sale or inheritance.
One may cite here the case of the Dhaka City Survey that was carried out by the land office more than a decade ago. Its results were published and circulated only about a couple of years ago. But it is not yet being enforced. However, the latest report suggests that efforts are now underway to operationalise digital land records in areas under Dhaka city on the basis of the findings of the related survey. This should be done sooner than later. And steps should simultaneously be taken to computerise land records throughout the country in phases at an accelerated pace. If that is done, there will be fewer opportunities for land office officials to demand bribe for mutation in each case of registration; such officials make money under the table from providing, at times, dubious mutation certificates that in turn understandably lead to many litigations later on. All such scopes for bribery and paving the way for litigations can be avoided from timely completion of digital land records and enforcement of the new procedures at the fastest.
Indeed, a digitalised or computerised manner of keeping land records for all categories of users can be one of the effective solutions to many crimes, corruption and troubles faced in this area. The digitalisation process must not crawl on. Government leaders have been stating that they are very keen for ‘digital Bangladesh’. But the pace of digitalisation of the land record system is not at all encouraging. Clearly, the outmoded processes need to give way to complete digitalisation at the soonest. A comprehensive plan should be prepared for the purpose and it should be implemented with a sense of urgency. This is really a developmental issue of significance and the country cannot go on foot-dragging in this vital area.