Centre to soon finalise proposals of 3 Meghalaya ADCs under DIRLMP

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaOctober 19, 2023

The Centre has decided to soon finalise the proposals submitted by the three autonomous district councils (ADCs) of Meghalaya under the Digital India Land Record Modernization Programme (DIRLMP).

This was informed during a meeting held between the Department of Land Resources under the Ministry of Rural Development and the representatives of the three ADCs – KHADC, JHADC and GHADC – in New Delhi on Thursday.

In a statement, KHADC EM in-charge Land Teiborlang Pathaw said, “The proposal will be finalized/approved tentatively by the 10th of November 2023. Officials from the Ministry will be visiting Shillong for launching of the scheme. The scheme will be implemented within the framework of the Indian Constitution.”

During the meeting, Pathaw has stated that the KHADC is ready to implement the DILRMP scheme since the customary practices of issuing land documents have been codified by the enactment of the Khasi Hills Autonomous District (Regulation and Administration of Land) Act 2021.

He also spoke on the recent direction from the Meghalaya High Court for the digitization of land records and linking with the civil courts for adjudication of several land litigations. 

The member from GHADC stressed on the role of the autonomous council vis-à-vis the unique land tenure system amongst the three ADCs about the implementation of DILRMP and the fear of the people. Seeing the demerits of the traditional method for issuing land documents we see this as a way forward, keeping in mind the cultural ethos, and sentiments and keeping pace with technology.

He also stressed the need to sensitize the people to digitizing land records besides capacity-building exercises. 

The members from JHADC informed that they had been issuing land-holding certificates for quite some time using GPS technology. The issue before them is the computerization of all records.

The meeting was chaired by Sonmoni Borah, Joint Secretary of the Department of Land Resources, Ministry of Rural Development, who welcomed all officials.

After a brief introduction by all the members, the meeting was open for discussion. 

The Chairman briefed all on the previous meeting held on the 10th of August 2023, who also informed on the meeting organized by the KHADC with the headman for sensitizing on the Scheme attended by more than 140 headmen, which was a grand success.

He also informed about the creation of a single PMU account at the state level to link all the autonomous district councils for smooth fund flow.

He also spoke on capacity building and training so that once the project is over the council will be empowered to function on their own.

Ajay Tirkey, IAS, Secretary of the Department of Land Resources, Ministry of Rural Development, expressed the need for all Nort-Eastern states to keep pace with the latest technology for land management.

Several questions were raised on the same and were answered as a response of a poor land governance system.

For all development activities, land governance is the starting point. Overall, 95% of the land has been digitized and the remaining 5% lies in the North-East.

He expressed the necessity for all North-Eastern Hills Councils to move ahead in this direction to have a modern and vibrant land governance system which would also be a model for the rest of India.