E-Paper
Budget 2024: 'Bhu-Aadhaar' for all rural lands, reforms to digitise land records
Nirmala Sitharaman announced comprehensive land reforms for both rural and urban areas. It will be implemented in partnership with state governments.
Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday proposed unique identification number for all land parcels in rural areas called “Bhu-Aadhaar” and other urban land record digitisation measures as part of union budget 2024.
For rural land reforms, the measures include assigning Unique Land Parcel Identification Number (ULPIN) or “Bhu-Aadhaar” for all lands, digitization of cadastral maps, survey of map sub-divisions as per current ownership, establishment of land registry and linking it to the farmers registry.
In urban areas, land will be digitised with help of GIS mapping. An IT system will be established for property record administration, updating and tax administration. This measure aims to improve the financial position of urban local bodies.
Sitharaman said the central government would formulate an “economic policy framework” to set forth the overarching approach to economic development and set the stage for next generation reforms to facilitate employment opportunities and sustained growth.
“Our government will initiate and incentivize reforms for improving productivity of factors of production, facilitating markets and sectors to become more efficient. These reforms will cover all factors of production, namely land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship, and technology as an enabler of improving total factor productivity and bridging inequality,” she said.
Stressing that development of the country lies in the development of states, finance minister said that an effective implementation of these reforms needs consensus and collaboration between the centre and the states. ""For promoting competitive federalism and incentivizing states for faster implementation of reforms, I propose to earmark a significant part of the 50-year interest-free loan," she added.
Finance minister said the central government will work in partnership with states to implement these reforms in both urban and rural areas. It would also provide fiscal support to states to incentive them to complete these reforms in the next three years.
Sitharaman said that land related reforms and actions in both urban and rural areas will cover “land administration, planning and management, urban planning, usage and building bylaws. These will be incentivized for completion within the next 3 years through appropriate fiscal support.”
(With inputs from PTI)
