The efforts of two dozen satellites, especially modified short range drone and a dedicated team of experts are finally going to settle the land disputes in National Capital Regions of India. A digital map of the district has replaced those age-old area maps that was leading to several disputes for property in NCR in context of their demarcation. This initiative has grabbed a National eGovernance award and is expected to resolve the major land disputes pending in Gurgaon (now Gurugram).
These digital maps are equipped with geo-referencing at land holding levels which help in identifying errors pertaining to the records of official land departments. A country like India where the prices of property are at premium, this new method has replaced the antiquated method of measuring basis painstaking ground surveys rocked the NCR with a series of property disputes, in Gurgaon at present.
Two of India’s prominent real estate developers in Gurugram were locked in a battle over a portion of land, while one came up with a commercial project and other building a set of residential apartments; ultimately fuelling the idea of new age drone that will precisely take care of such disputes to accurately locate a seasonal rivulet at the centre of the problem.
Errors crept in between 1957 and 2016 in the Manesar Tehsil were measured at 7.39% which subsequently have been brought down to mere 0.1% as revealed by T L Satyaprakash, Deputy Commissioner of Gurugram.
Geo Referencing
The ‘freedom’ of revenue officials regarding demarcation of land in the absence of physical markings fuelled thousands of vagrancies in records and property disputes, has been restrained. Under traditional method of demarcation, village junctions and trijunctions are used as the reference points but these markings are lost or destroyed over the time.
Land Disputes
The acquisition of 912 acres of land in Gurgaon is probed by ED and CBI which is alleged to set the farmers at a loss of 1500 crores in 2004 and befitted the land developers. Irregularities in granting favours to Robert Vadra firms have been commissioned by Justice Dhingra.
In just one Tehsil, 1500 ownership issues have been resolved by validating 2800 acres of area which were pending for years.
A Universal triangulation method has been used to create a layer of reference points for land holding determination. A drone provides sub meter resolution images with 24 satellites used for geo-referencing at Manesar. A land-error at an alarming rate of 7.39% was noted down which has been slashed down to 0.1% with new data at hand.
Now the biggest challenge is to attain the legal validity for these digital maps. However, these maps are considered as the most accurate means of land record management in Asia. This new age tool will bring more transparency to urban planning, property tax collection and will put a check on land encroachments. Thousands of land disputes burdening the legal system can also be avoided. It has further been planned to connect the several government database with it, to generate land parcel Ids which can instantly verify the purchase and sale of property transactions. However, a lot of work is still pending to attract a comprehensive database. The drone which are being used in the project to settle the land disputes in NCR are crashed at times thus bringing up its cost.
The pilot project is expected to involve a cost of around 50 Lakhs.
