Comment

In the long history of India, chapters on formal land records and land as collateral for official tax systems are few. One of the most established ones has been the formal effort by Mughal king Akbar who employed the expertise of his courtier Todarmal for mass scale surveying of land parcels. Marathas exploited the same for revenue collections by indiscriminately subdividing and selling the plots.

The British adopted a scientific approach towards surveying primarily for data bank and official records. India owes to Britain the detailed and precise land records and property surveys. The most detailed account of built form exist even today with plotting of footprints, house extensions, courtyard voids, number of floors and the network of the unbuilt can be found by just placing a finger on the maps. Beautiful maps and land records of the walled city exist even today. It is commendable that all this was achieved without any satellite imagery or aerial photos.

Today, with all the technology at our disposal, can we at least have decent charts of the cities in post independence era? Sad enough, the answer is a loud No. Europe has made itself navigable by etching accurate maps of each building and street in their cities. How accurately can we find our way in our cities?

Land and property survey maps are as critical as census surveys for N number of interpretations of planning policies. These accurate survey records remain legal documents as physical proof of the property's existence, location, footprint, area and extent, numbers and types.

Most legal disputes can be prevented as well as resolved with such official documentation and authentic records. These also become the instruments for authorities to arrive at accurate estimates and are a scientific tool for revenue
collection.

Land surveys are an authentic base to device contextually relevant, ecologically sensitive planning policies and development control regulations. When integrated with other infrastructure systems it becomes an efficient device to fight out emergencies and evolve quick yet accurate solutions.

Thankfully, some work towards this endeavour has been made by Rajkot Municipal Corporation recently. GIS factory has carried out land surveys in 105 sq km area here over a span of two years.

Scientific tools of satellite imagery, total station surveys from ground, photographic survey of external facades and households have been put into practice.

Not only topography survey is conducted at 5 metre grid accuracy, land contours are plotted at every half a metre and properties are demarcated in plan digitally with their boundaries. The survey also includes information about house condition (kaccha or pucca), type of house (tenements, bungalows, apartments, etc), number of floors, land use on ground and upper floors, streets/road network, dividers, traffic islands, gardens and condition of footpath, material of surface finishes, electrical lamp posts (indexed individually), location of manhole, sewage and water supply lines network and their diameters, their invert levels below the ground, water valve locations, T junctions, existing trees, telephone lines, and so on.

Each house or building facade is photographed and owner information is generated.

What this means is that authorities now have accurate and authentic data to make wise planning policies. They have found that five lakh properties exist under their survey, as against their present records that depict three lakh such properties. The difference two lakh properties are unregistered and do not contribute towards taxes.

Now the property tax income from these unregistered establishments not only covers the expenses of the survey, but also meets the losses incurred due to absence of Octroi. Thus, direct revenue gains with no rise in tariff. This also means that authorities can now plan for correct number of infrastructure end users, which they so far were underestimating.

The survey is also available in digital format. Thus road widening, road surfacing, construction of footpath and installation of pipelines can be accurately measured prior to actual onsite work, saving on any approximation and cost overruns. It means very easy and clear implementation against encroachments.

For citizens, land surveys bring in the much needed transparency and a scientific check on corruption. It also leads to their active participation in the processes. For example, a citizen can accurately relate to authorities about, for example, a fused bulb in a particular lamp post.

Authorities will also be able address the problem accurately with appropriate measures. This saves on costs and increases efficiency. Above all, it makes for tangible document for land/property ownership and simplifies any legal course of action.

The author is an Ahmedabad-based architect and historian