T.N. bans manual processing of patta transfers
The State government has banned with immediate effect manual issuing of pattas and processing patta transfer applications pertaining to ‘Grama Natham’ lands. The process has been made entirely online in 146 taluks across the State where Natham land records have been digitised and ported to the central server.
Official sources said that digitisation of land records in the remaining 167 taluks would be completed and moved to the State Data Centre by April 30, 2024, after which the process of accepting applications for patta or ownership transfer would be completely online through Tamil NILAM, a webbased software developed by the National Informatics Centre.
After the scheme was successfully implemented in pilot taluks — Manapparai in Tiruchi district and Kinathukkadavu in Coimbatore district— land records were ported to the central server in a phased manner.
Chief Minister M.K. Stalin formally launched the Natham Online Patta Transfer scheme in Mayiladuthurai on March 4.
The exercise was initiated after the government issued orders for prescribing a common nomenclature with respect to the classification of Natham lands to be brought online to accurately reflect private and government ownership of lands for Natham land records throughout the State, barring Chennai. Land records relating to rural (agricultural) and urban areas were already brought online using TamilNILAM software.
In a communication to all Collectors, the Director of Survey and Settlement P. Madhusudhan Reddy said that the procedure for manual submission of patta transfer applications at Taluk offices, wherever Natham land records were brought online, stood withdrawn with immediate effect and the process should be done online through TamilNILAM. Also, issuance of manual ‘adangal’ and ‘chitta’ documents should also be stopped and processed online.
Mr. Reddy asked the Collectors to inform all Tahsildhars not to accept any physical/manual patta transfer applications where the new scheme was implemented, and create awareness among the public on the initiative that would help them access land records online.
Asked about the access of people in rural areas to internetenabled systems to apply online, a senior official in the Survey and Settlement department said that the next step would be to make eseva centres with more manpower and infrastructure available to them.