Plan to link Aadhaar with land records

In order to ensure transparency, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked the Union agriculture ministry to explore the possibility of linking Aadhaar with land records, as doing so would be beneficial for crop insurance and provision of bank loans for farmers.

Sources privy to the development said that the directive by the PM has come at a time when Aadhaar card holders have touched the billion mark.

In addition to this, Mr Modi has also asked for digitisation of all land records, as this would help in linking them with Aadhaar card numbers. The agriculture ministry has been asked to work in tandem with state governments to complete the process of computerising land records as well as registration process and integrate both.

Cabinet Secretary P.K. Sinha has been directed to periodically review the progress of the process to ensure that it is completed in a time-bound manner, sources added.

The newly-launched crop insurance scheme of the NDA government for the benefit of farmers is likely to get a boost once the digitisation process of land records is completed.

The entire process is to be completed under the aegis of the Digital India programme of the Centre.

All Central ministries and even states have been asked to provide all common facilities, like motor vehicle licences, ration cards, birth and death certificates and payments of bill etc electronically under this platform.

The Prime Minister, who held a high-level meeting with top bureaucrats of all Central ministries as well as chief secretaries of states recently, emphasised on the need for providing all such facilities on mobile phones to the common man.

Sources said that the Prime Minister has been keen on completing all these processes on a “mission mode.”

Also, with “transparency” being the buzzword of the NDA government, the PMO is of the view that through digitisation of land records and provision of basic schemes through mobile platforms, greater clarity would be introduced in such processes.