**Box** 9: **Computer-aided Registration Administration System (CRAS)**

The present registration system is manual and dependent upon age-old methods and procedures. The increasing volume of transactions has led to inordinate delays and inefficiencies. Further, documents are subject to decay and the retrieval of documents is laborious and prone to delays. At the same time, valuation of property, essential to confirm that the sale price is not below the prevailing market price, takes a great deal of time in manually searching through the previous three years' records to find the highest value.

On the initiative of the Orissa Revenue Department, the state unit of the National Informatics Centre was contracted to develop a proposal for the computerisation of the registration administration system (CRAS) and its backward integration with land records computerisation. CRAS is expected to:

- reduce scope for the manipulation of records, and the time required to complete registration;

- eliminate the need for Form No.3, and thereby reduce delays, as information pertaining to land transaction may be sent directly to the tehsil computer;

- enable the sub-registrar to ascertain the validity of the transaction at the time of registration, by linking to the tehsil computer, thereby reducing subsequent delays and unnecessary costs; and

- assist the tehsildar at the time of mutation to ascertain relevant facts directly by means of a link to the subregistrar's computer for speedier disposal of mutation cases and updating of RORs.

_Source: Natinal Informatics Centre, 1998_ _4.1.4 Will reduced transaction costs facilitate land sales and increase access to land by rural_ _poor?_ To address these questions, we first need to examine the functioning of the rural land market. Why do farm households buy or sell land? And, who buys and who sells?

It is conventionally assumed that the full specification and documentation (in the form of assured title) of private rights in land will eliminate risks and uncertainty in land rights and will lead to an active land market. However, a characteristic feature of the rural land market in Orissa, and elsewhere in India, is that the demand for land far exceeds its supply. This is usually because land ownership is one of the principal sources of livelihood security in the villages. No one wants to sell land unless forced to, since 'land prices do not fully compensate for the high risks in parting with this secure asset as evaluated by the farmer. In the absence of integrated financial markets, the transaction costs of investing the sales proceeds in alternative ventures is also far too high. Besides, the externalities of landownership in terms of social status and credit collateral for the owner may not be fully reflected in the land prices in the market.' (Bardhan, 1984: 95) Land ownership is also a major source of prestige and social status. It is estimated that in urban areas of Orissa, nearly 300,000 household heads, mostly employed by the government, each own more than three acres of land in their natal villages. They hold on to their holdings as absentee landlords for prestige<sup>2 9</sup> . Until recently, status in urban areas was usually derived not so much from the size of one's village holding, but from the fact that 'food (grain) comes from my village land.'

> 29 Member, Board of Revenue, Cuttack, personal comm.

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