Jammu and Kashmir's flagship online land records system, heralded as a major step towards transparency, has been non-functional for several months, casting a shadow over the Union Territory's digital governance initiatives and leaving citizens in the lurch.
A Digital Milestone Goes Dark
Launched with considerable fanfare in 2021 by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, the 'Aapki Zameen, Aapki Nigrani' Land Records Information System was a cornerstone project under the national Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme. After five years of development, the portal aimed to digitise and provide public access to crucial land and property documents, including maps, to curb disputes and enhance accountability.
The system represented a massive digitisation effort. Nearly eight crore pages of revenue records and over 55,000 maps were scanned and uploaded to create a comprehensive online repository. However, this digital repository became inaccessible to the public in the first week of May this year, coinciding with a cybersecurity initiative known as Operation Sindoor. The extended downtime has effectively rendered years of meticulous digitisation work redundant for end-users.
Blame Game and Security Concerns
The land records portal is not an isolated case. It is among several official government websites that went offline during the security operation and have struggled to come back online. In August, the Jammu and Kashmir e-Governance Agency, in response to an RTI query, confirmed that 90 government portals were offline. While most have been restored since, key sites like the land records system remain down.
Officials have cited security audits as the reason for the prolonged disruption. "After the sites went offline, there was a security audit and many loopholes were found," an official from the J&K e-Governance Agency stated. He explained that portals still offline have failed to secure the mandatory 'Safe Host' certification required for restoration after vulnerabilities were identified. Departments that addressed these issues and obtained the certification have seen their services resume.
Transparency Lost, Burden Restored
The continued failure to restore the portal has sparked a blame game between government departments and has serious practical implications. A senior revenue official highlighted the core issue: "As the public access to the website has been cut-off, the main purpose of digitisation of land records and transparency has been lost."
With the online system defunct, the entire process has reverted to manual methods, increasing the burden on both citizens and officials. "The entire burden is back on the revenue officials now since the services are not available online," the official added. This setback undermines the very transparency and ease of service delivery that the portal was designed to achieve.
The situation raises significant questions about digital preparedness and administrative accountability in Jammu and Kashmir. As months pass without a resolution, the promise of a transparent, digitised land records system remains unfulfilled, leaving a critical gap in public service delivery.
