Maharashtra state becomes first to issue land documents online

By Realty Quarter Bureau

Maharashtra has become the first state to issue a crucial land ownership document online and accept a digital signature on it as valid. The state government’s plan of digitizing the 7/12 extract is thus complete. On Tuesday, it went a step ahead and generated eight lakh documents with space for digital signatures. The facility was inaugurated by the chief minister.

The 7/12 receipt is extensively used by farmers for loan agreements, crop survey and for availing of government facilities. Till a few years ago, hand-written 7/12 receipts were prepared by talathis, who solely had the power to make changes in the documents. This resulted in several instances of misuse of authority. While talathis, who are local level revenue staff, would be supposed to issue the document as a matter of assistance, in reality many of them would demand bribes. In all, there are 2.46 crore 7/12 extracts across the state’s 43,000 villages. All have been digitized. “So far, eight lakh documents have been generated using digital signatures. The remaining will be completed by August,” said revenue minister Chandrakant Patil.

He said that from now on, any farmer can avail of the land ownership document without going to any government office. All that is needed is a computer with an internet connection.

“Since the document can now be signed with a digital signature, it can be used for official purposes like in banks or courts,” said Patil.

CM Devendra Fadnavis said the government is looking at creating a digital repository of all maps concerning the state. A pilot project has been launched in six districts. The other districts will be covered in the next step. At the Tuesday event Fadnavis distributed online 7/12 extracts to farmers from Kalyan and Thane.

To get the document digitally, one can log on to mahabhulekh.maharashtra.gov.in. Information about the district, taluka, village and other details should be filled there. The document will be generated as a PDF.