Surat okays e-zameen scheme for its NRGs

The district panchayat of Surat, in view of prevention of forgery cases involving the sale of land owned by NRIs and NRGs in and around Surat, has decided to implement e-land system. The plan of developing such a system has been originally mooted by the state government and Surat panchayat has decided to implement it on a priority basis.

e-zameen system is a registration process that was started by the Gujarat government in 2010. The project has all the details of the land along with the photograph of the owner, his/her fingerprint stored in the data base. This was done mainly to prevent forgery in land sale. While this facility was available for villagers, NRIs and NRGs did not benefit from this project.

Surat district panchayat, in this regard, has decided to include NRIs and NRGs of Surat in it. There are more than 2,500 NRIs and NRGs who have massive land holdings in different villages of the district. Panchayat has sent an e-mail to all of them, asking them to participate in the system.

Ashwin Patel, president of Surat district panchayat said NRIs and NRGs are 'soft targets', as they live thousands of kilometres away from their ancestral homes. In many cases, the land is sold by preparing fake papers in absence of the owner.

"To prevent this, we have decided to involve NRIs and NRGs in the e-zameen system. We have e-mailed them asking to participate in the process  as and when they visit India," Patel said. To ensure that there are no flaws in the process, the district panchayat has entrusted the work to the magistrate level officer.

"We have informed NRIs and NRGs about e-zameen, and they have shown interest in it. It will help them avoid becoming victims of land-related frauds," said Remya Mohan, DDO of Surat.