In a significant move aimed at streamlining land administration and providing relief to the common people, the Bihar government officially launched a new online system for land partition and registration on Saturday. The innovative mechanism, introduced through the revenue and land reforms department's Biharbhumi portal, is designed to simplify complex procedures and significantly reduce property-related disputes among family members.
How the New Online System Works
The core feature of the new mechanism allows multiple family members to register their respective shares of a partitioned property through a single, unified application. This eliminates the cumbersome and time-consuming requirement of separate registration applications for each shareholder, which was the norm under the old system. Revenue and Land Reforms Minister Vijay Kumar Sinha, who is also the Deputy Chief Minister, announced the launch at a press conference.
He explained the shortcomings of the previous process, stating that after a family partition, every individual had to apply separately for the mutation of their land share. This often led to unnecessary difficulties and bureaucratic delays for citizens. Taking this issue seriously, the department was directed to overhaul and improve the system.
Development and Key Features
Following the minister's instructions, a departmental team led by Principal Secretary C K Anil developed the new digital framework in a remarkably short period. The system has now been fully integrated into the mutation services section of the Biharbhumi portal.
Applicants can now submit all necessary forms online and, importantly, track the real-time progress of their applications digitally, bringing much-needed transparency to the process. Minister Sinha emphasized that this integration would bring substantial relief to ordinary citizens dealing with land matters.
A major advancement is the introduction of a succession-cum-partition facility. This allows legal heirs, following the death of a landowner, to simultaneously execute the partition of the property and obtain separate jamabandi (land records) for their individual shares in one streamlined process.
Addressing the Backlog and Future Outreach
The launch comes on the heels of the extensive Revenue Maha-Abhiyan conducted across the state in August and September this year. Sinha revealed that the drive received a staggering over 46 lakh (4.6 million) applications, with more than 40 lakh of these pertaining to partition and succession mutation.
The government has set a deadline of December 31 to upload all these applications to the system. To ensure their swift disposal, camps will be organized again in panchayats between January and March of the coming year.
In a parallel initiative to make land administration more accessible, the government has also launched the Bhumi Sudhar Jan Kalyan Samvad. Under this dialogue program, officials will visit districts to directly understand people's land-related issues and resolve them within a fixed timeframe.
Minister Sinha concluded that these digital and grassroots initiatives mark a crucial step towards transforming land administration in Bihar, making it more transparent, simple, and ultimately, people-oriented.
