Nidhi Khare rolls out National Generic Document Registration System across Assam

Secretary, Department of Land Resources, Smt. Nidhi Khare rolled out National Generic Document Registration System (NDGRS) throughout Assam along with the launch of Unique Land Parcel Identification Number (ULPIN) seeding of geo referenced Cadastral Maps. Special Chief Secretary, Government of Assam Shri Syedain Abbasi launched rollout of Blockchain in land records in Darrang district as a pilot today. The event was organized by the Revenue and Disaster Management Department, Government of Assam.

Addressing at the event Smt. Nidhi Khare pointed out that NGDRS, a project initiated by the Department of Land Resources, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India is a common, generic application developed for registration departments across the country under One Nation One Software initiative. She said that the NGDRS application is developed by NIC Pune and the Assam Instance of NGDRS is hosted in State Data Centre (SDC). NDGRS in Assam was launched by Chief Minister of Assam on November 14, 2022. Currently NGDRS has been rolled out in SROs of two Districts, i.e Kamrup and Darrang and now NGDRS is rolled out in all the 77 SROs of Assam. She further highlighted the following key features of the Assam Instance of NGDRS:

1. The Assam instance of NGDRS has been integrated with Dharitree for zonal value and location, NOC for party and land details, eGras for online payment, e-Stamp and citizen services of Sewa Setu (Non encumbrance Certificate, Certified Copy, Marriage Registration, Deed Registration).
2. Auto- calculation of fees according to the articles is enabled.
3.  Total of 76 articles configured in NGDRS.

Smt. Nidhi Khare also highlighted the importance of Blockchain, one of the IT reforms initiated by Revenue & Disaster Management, Govt. of Assam in order to bring radical transformation in Land Records Management to ensure increased trust, auditability, traceability, immutability of land records data. She further emphasized that the goal of securing Land Records with blockchain is to allow transactions to be recorded and distributed but not edited. Blockchain technology’s unique combination of cryptography and distribute network nodes allows data to be maintained and validated in trusted ecosystem. It was also pointed out that the ULPIN (Unique Land Parcel Identification Number) is taken as the unique blockchain ID and the land parcel is uniquely identified using ULPIN from Bhunaksha. Smt. Khare further explained that the ULPIN, a 14-digit alpha numeric identification number to every land parcel can be described as the AADHAR or fingerprint for land. The identification is based on the longitude and latitude of the land parcel and is dependent on geo-referenced cadastral maps. She further highlighted that the benefits of ULPIN are to ensure uniqueness in all transactions, keeping the spatial records up to date, linking of property transactions, sharing of land records data across departments, financial institutions and to eliminate fraudulent transactions. In NGDRS, the deed is digitally signed by SRO and stored in blockchain after the approval of deed. She further mentioned that Blockchain will offer, security, accountability, and record scrutinization from the start to end.

The District level Blockchain based cadastre and land records registry Pilot is launched in Darrang district and will be rolled out pan Assam shortly.