Banks will have access to agri land records

Firstly, the system has been implemented for agricultural lands in Ahmedabad district on pilot basis. Based on the feedback, it will be replicated across state and later for even non-agricultural properties.

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This will save the precious time of farmers, who have to visit the registrar office many a times to get the property card. Banks demand this card as a valid proof that the loan applicant is the real owner of the property without any encumbrance. Thus the digitalisation of agricultural land records has come handy for the banks to have quick access to this data in no time.

“The banks will be given online access to land records, which are available on the Gujarat Government portal under e-dhara project. The access will be limited to check and make a temporary entry that the particular property has been mortgaged. Later, it will be followed by the revenue department to mark a permanent entry,” said a top official from the Revenue Department which is being handled by the Chief Minister.

Revenue department officials maintain that initially this will be helpful to farmers to get crop loans by mortgaging their land. “The co-operative banks will first run and test the system to know its effective use,” said an official.

Under this pilot project, if any farmer of Ahmedabad district needs a loan against his land, he can directly approach the bank. He does not need to visit the collectorate or mamlatdar office to get the certificate. The bank itself will check the government records online and process the mortgage loan application, he added.

In a phased manner, the government is mulling to replicate the project across state and later for all types of properties. “This pilot project will help us to study the shortcomings in implementing this scheme and how this can be made smoother. Based on the feedback from the banks, the system will be made further smooth and better,” the official added.

After the successful implementation of the pilot project, it will be replicated in all 33 districts for agricultural land, the government will bring even the non-agricultural properties under this project.