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[from ICT Update, a current awareness bulletin for ACP agriculture (ISSUE 17, May 2004)]
SARITA: land documents -- digitally signed, sealed and delivered
Suraj Kulkarni describes how a new software platform has transformed the
process of registering land title documents in the Indian state of
Maharashtra.
Farmer Rai Singh Bhika Padvi and his neighbour are standing in line at
the local office of the Stamps and Registration Department (SRD) in
Warana Nagar, in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Within just a few
minutes digital images of the men have been recorded with a webcam and
their thumbprints registered with a biometric scanner. The images will
be included in an official document detailing the property deal the two
men struck a few days ago.
Registering this document is the first and most critical step in the
process of transferring formal title to land or property. The document
serves as proof of identity of the new owner, and is accepted by banks
as collateral for loans or other forms of credit. After adding the
digital photograph and thumbprint, an SRD official stamps and signs the
original document, passes it through a digital scanner and stores the
image on CD. Padvi and his neighbour are then handed a printed receipt
confirming the transaction. In just under 30 minutes, their deal is
digitally signed and sealed, and the original document is delivered back
to the customer.
Not so long ago this registration procedure would have taken many hours
or even days. The improvement has been achieved with the Stamp and
Registration with Information Technology Application (SARITA), a
software platform developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced
Computing (C-DAC) to support the computerization of the state’s land
registration system. Since 2002 SARITA has been introduced at 360 SRD
offices, which serve 7 million customers each year and process a million
pages of documents per day.
Greater transparency
Not only has SARITA cut the time and effort required of both SRD
officials and customers to process documents, it has also made the land
registration procedure far less complicated. The Maharashtra state
government recognizes 62 different property and deed registration
documents, all of which used to be stored in enormous paper-based
archives. Many of these documents were never verified or updated, and
often contained incorrect or false information. The system was open to
abuse, and to so-called ‘stamp shams’ - large numbers of registration
documents containing counterfeit stamps - resulting in significant
losses in revenue for the government.
Thanks in large part to SARITA, fraud has been significantly curtailed.
The system’s foolproof security measures, such as image encryption and
decryption, and the inclusion of digital photographs and thumbprints,
help to prevent forgeries. Local registrars are now required to stamp
and sign registration documents immediately, in view of the waiting
customer, rather than behind closed doors. What’s more, all local SRD
offices are linked via an inexpensive dial-up Internet connection to
facilitate the exchange of documents and other data between the taluka
(villages) and the highest administrative level. The new operational
transparency has prevented abuses of the system across the board.
Crucially, the system has also helped to boost state government
revenues. SARITA automatically checks the value of the land or property
that is being registered, provides a valuation and calculates the amount
of stamp duty payable. This can be carried out at the click of a button
because SARITA is hooked up to databases containing land survey and
property market data verified by the state government. Within just two
years, the state’s annual revenues from stamp duty have increased by 30%.
Public-private partnership
Another reason for SARITA’s success lies in the organizational model
adopted - a public-private partnership between the SRD and the private
sector known as ‘build, operate and transfer’ (BOT). With this
arrangement the state has been able to increase its property tax
revenues without any capital investment. Private companies have been
contracted to install, operate and maintain SARITA across all SRD
offices for an initial period of five years. These companies are
responsible for operating and maintaining the computer hardware,
providing personnel for data entry and scanning tasks, and maintaining
performance standards. The private partners operate their collective
computing infrastructure on a cost-sharing basis, and are able to
recover their investments by charging service fees to SRD customers. At
the end of the contract period, ownership of SARITA will be transferred
back to the state government.
SARITA has emerged as a truly successful e-governance application,
delivering transparent and more efficient services that have provided a
win-win solution for the state government, the commercial sector and the
public. This public-private partnership model has the potential to
transform the work of land registration agencies throughout India, and
in countries across the world.
