In states like.. Orissa.. there is no system of the annual revision of the record of rights. ..The records are usually brought up-to-date only during re-survey and settlement. As these operations are usually done at very long intervals the records remain out of date most of the times (Appu, 1997: 102-3).

Poor land records often lead to:

- **_Difficulty in protecting land rights:_** Land records specify the rights of individuals and the state with respect to a particular parcel of land. It is difficult to uphold rights if they are not recorded or updated regularly.

- **_Difficulty in targeting development initiatives:_** An inefficient land records system makes it difficult to retrieve timely information for purposes of policy formulation and targeting of state benefits.

- **_Increase in rent-seeking:_** Lack of records restricts the flow of information and gives rise to economic rents that may be captured by government officials.

- **_Increase in rural/agrarian violence:_** While poor land records do not directly lead to agrarian violence, they contribute by making it difficult to enforce rights and target benefits to the poor.

- **_Encroachment of government land:_** Poor or partial maintenance of land records has led to the steady encroachment of government land.

- **_Uncertainty in conveyancing._** An imperfectly maintained land records system increases the costs of all land transactions and prevents the development of a freely functioning land market.

- **_Inability of landowners to access credit:_** Poor land records make it difficult to use land as a collateral to raise credit in both institutional and informal markets.

Various plan documents have recognised these factors, and a conference of revenue ministers on land reforms in 1985 reached a consensus that 'computerisation of land and crop-based statistics should be taken up on pilot basis at tehsilVrevenue-circle level' (GOI, 1985:54). Computerisation of land records (COLR) is now being implemented to redress this shortcoming. It is hoped that it will:

- facilitate easy maintenance and updating of changes that occur in the land data base (e.g. changes due to availability of irrigation, natural calamities, consolidation or on account of land transactions);

- make land records tamper-proof and indirectly reduce litigation and social conflicts over land;

- facilitate implementation of development programmes for which data about distribution of landholding is vital;

- assist in planning for infrastructural and environmental development;

- produce accurate records for land revenue purposes;

- facilitate speedy retrieval of land-related data;

- provide a database for the quinquennial agricultural census; and * issue updated copy of RORs to landholders quickly and more cheaply.

COLR is a central-sector scheme with full financial assistance from Government of India (GOI). Orissa is the only state in the country in which the scheme is being implemented in all districts. A sum of around Rs. 300 million has been made available by the GOI for three years to cover data entry in the local language (Oriya), civil construction, purchase of hardware, and operational costs during that period. GOO will take over full responsibility for the operation at the end of the three-year period.

The scheme is to be executed on a district-wise project basis through the Revenue department. Private firms have been contracted to enter the records in 10 districts<sup>27</sup> in the first instance. The target for data entry is 90

- 27 The districts are: Ganjam, Cuttack, Kendrapada, Jagatsinghpur, Bhadrak, Khurda, Bargarh, Dhenkanal, Angul, and Nayagarh.

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