New Delhi: Three years on, around 30 percent of the rural land parcels in the country have been given a Unique Land Parcel Identification Number (ULPIN) or Bhu-Aadhaar—an initiative to give a 14-digit alpha-numeric identity to each land parcel—according to data available on the rural development ministry’s portal.
ULPIN was launched in 2021 as part of the Centre’s Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme (DILRMP) to streamline and bring uniformity to the process adopted by states in assigning unique identification numbers to land parcels.
It was earlier known as the National Land Record Modernisation Programme and was approved by the cabinet in August 2008. It was revamped as DILRMP and implemented as a central sector scheme from 1 April 2016.
Of the over 28.72 crore land parcels listed on the ministry’s portal, over 8.4 crore ULPINs have been generated, according to the data till 18 October. While states such as Gujarat, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh have made significant progress, progress has been slow in states such as West Bengal, Bihar and Uttarakhand, the data indicates.
With the Narendra Modi government announcing an incentive for the modernisation of land records in rural areas in the Union Budget FY2024-2025, the land resources department under the Ministry of Rural Development—the nodal ministry for the implementation of the DILRMP—has asked states to share the exact number of land parcels by the end of October and also finalise the target for implementation of ULIP to avail the incentive.
According to the Centre’s guidelines, 11 states such as Bihar, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu among others can get incentives of Rs 100 crore if they achieve the target set for this year for geo-referencing cadastral maps and generating the ULPIN for each land parcel in targeted villages. Other states can get between Rs 30 and 60 crore if they meet the target.
According to a senior ministry official, “The number of land parcels might increase due to sub-division of plots. To avail themselves of the incentive, the states and Union territories have to provide the details about the number of land parcels under their jurisdiction by October. The states can set the target to give ULPIN to land parcels in the current financial year by January. We want the ULPIN process to be complete by March 2026, which is the sunset date for DILRMP.”
The ministry is also in the process of upgrading the Management Information System portal for the scheme to get real-time data from states and Union territories, said an official.
In Gujarat, which has over 1.2 crore land parcels, the data show, the ULPIN has been generated for 1.19 crore land parcels.
“The number of land parcels has increased due to sub-division of plots over the years. We have almost completed the process to generate ULPIN for all land parcels. While we have the ULPIN in our records, it is yet to be shared with landowners,” said a senior official with the Gujarat government’s settlement commissioner and director of land records office.
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Geo-referencing of cadastral maps a challenge
Geo-referencing of cadastral maps is a prerequisite for providing ULPIN to a land parcel. The 14-digit alpha-numeric number has geo-referenced coordinates. But this number can be generated only after the maps obtained from satellite images or captured by flying drones are matched with the old cadastral maps.
“In several districts, the village maps are over 100 years old. It is a challenging process to match two sets of maps (Cadastral and the newly obtained one through the latest technology),” said a senior official with the Uttar Pradesh government. The ministry’s data shows that UP has generated 1.28 crore ULPINs.
A few years ago, the UP government had started its own process to allot unique identification numbers to each land parcel. “But we are now using ULPIN for this purpose,” the official said.
States such as Madhya Pradesh and UP, among others, have roped in agencies to geo-reference the land parcels. “We have almost completed the process. In our land records system, we have created a column where the ULPIN number is registered against the property details. The process to geo-reference the land parcels is a time-consuming process,” said a senior official with the Madhya Pradesh government.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
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It needs to be examined what problem of the people or the government is being solved by implementing Bhu-Aadhar which will consume huge time and money.