No more pattas, TN to have GIS-based land registration

“The facility has been added in an updated version of Simplified and Transparent Administration of Registration (STAR 2.0). Through GIS, land can be marked using latitudes and longitudes, including the exact borders of the land, which will eradicate the need of pattas in the future,” Kumaragurubaran told DT Next.

STAR 2.0 is the e-governance based administration and management system of the state Registration Department and thanks to this mechanism, paper work has been drastically reduced. It was implemented in February 2018 and ever since, the Department has been garnering widespread appreciation by the State government. It was recently given the best practices award during the Independence Day function.

The GIS technology, will not only reduce time, but will also help in eliminating fake pattas. “We receive several complaints about fake pattas being generated and several cases are pending in the courts for years. To prevent such fraudulent activities, the GIS technology would help as the land would be marked using quadrants and information would be stored online,” the Inspector General added. When asked whether borders of the registered land can be marked accurately, Kumaragurubaran replied that through normal GPS there would be a time lag, but with differential GPS, the location would be marked accurately. “STAR 2.0 uses differential GPS to mark the borders of the land accurately,” he said.

However, there are very few takers for the GIS technology as even sub-registrars are unaware of the facility. “We still rely on the patta information provided by the Revenue Department and many of us (sub-registrars) have no idea about the facility. Only if we knew about it could we inform the people,” a sub-registrar, on request of anonymity, told DT Next. When asked, Kumaragurubaran said there are very few takers of the GIS system, but expressed confidence that as the technology is relatively new, people will soon come to know of it.