Maha to complete digitisation of all 7/12 receipts by July-end

The Maharashtra government's ambitious project to complete the digitisation of the 7/12 receipts of total 2.46 crore land title documents is expected to be over by end of July this year instead of in May as was envisaged earlier, a Revenue officer told PTI today.
According to the officer, the government has so far achieved 80.58% digitisation.
"The digitisation of revenue documents means every land ownership document is available on state government's server and it can be accessed from any corner of the state.
"This will bypass the nuisance value of the village-level revenue officer (Talathi) who so far has been the only authority to issue 7/12 receipts. In the last 10 years, some revenue documents were available through internet but the digitally signed 7/12 receipt, which means accurate and updated (record), is going to be available for land owners for the first time," said Santosh Bhogale, deputy Secretary, Revenue department.

The 7/12 receipt is a crucial piece of document for the establishment of ownership of a piece of land. The receipt is extensively used by farmers, for loan agreements, crop survey and for availing government facilities.
Till some years ago, hand-written 7/12 receipts were prepared by Talathis who only have powers to make changes in these receipts, which resulted in several instances wherein officers misused their authority. To avoid this, the state government had come up with an idea of digitisation of entire revenue documents.

Earlier, the state government had announced that the digitisation project will be completed by March 31.However, due to complexities involved, the government decided to take more time and avoid errors in the project, sources had said.

Several cases have been pending in civil courts across the state due to errors or wrong documentation of 7/12 receipts.
Bhogale said that the government has so far achieved 80.58% digitisation of 2.46 crore 7/12 receipts in the state.
"Earlier, entire record of land and its ownership was handled manually and hence the entire procedure was time consuming. The system is also able to update its database. As land is sold, its purpose changed from agriculture to non-agriculture or (land got) acquired for infrastructure projects. The 7/12 receipts database will be updated automatically once such deals are executed," he said.

Another official said there are 18 districts in Maharashtra where digitisation of revenue documents is completed more than 90% so far.
"On the other hand, districts like Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri are at lower side with 39.39 % and 49.71% completion only. Legal cases and complicated land transfer decisions have affected the digitisation drive in these districts," he said.