The first land survey of Bihar was conducted in 1950 after the abolition of the Zamindari system, when the Supreme Court of India finally approved it along with the Bihar Land Reform Act passed in the Bihar Assembly. Since then, it took 74 years to do the second time in 38 districts of Bihar, which consisted of around 45,000 villages. Despite Bihar's status as India's agricultural state, home to 13 crore people, the Bihar government has shown no concern for this issue.
Now, the question arises in such a dismal consideration of the state government: why is the land survey of Bihar being conducted? What is the purpose of the state government for conducting land surveys? There seems to be nothing clear on this aspect rather than only one strong reason that the world has become digital and the land of Bihar is sitting idle in the name of ancestors, which has no relevance to the young generation.
Almost 13 states of India and 4 union territories have completed the digitization of land so far, and many more states are still unaware of it. The total area of land in Bihar is around 94,163 km2, which is scheduled to be covered in a few days by engaging 10 thousand officials to carry forward the project of land survey.
The collection of the land documents of individuals living in forty-five thousand villages in a fortnight appears to be very challenging because the total literacy rate of Bihar is 69.83%. Each individual is required to fill out a form by writing the name of the plot (Khata, Khesra), the landowner's details, the name of the shareholders, and the details of the neighbouring land as well. In addition, a complete list of ancestors (Vanshavali) has to be attached with the land details.
In doing it, there are some challenges before the people of Bihar as well as the government of Bihar. Almost one-third of the state population is illiterate, and most the documents are available in Kaithi script, which is very hard to be translated into Hindi or English by common people. When the problems become bigger and bigger, the seed of corruption starts germinating to solve the problem. And this is happening in the circle offices of Bihar.
Considering the challenges of the land survey, the Bihar government has decided to halt it for three months. In between, some trainings will be conducted to deal with the problems of the Kaithi script. It will not be suspended because, as per the government officials, around 52,000 acres of land have been in the possession of the land mafia. As a result, one-third of the population of Bihar is landless.
The purpose of the land survey is to settle the land disputes of the common people that are occupying 60% of cases in the civil courts. Therefore, digitization has become the need of the hour. For the economic development of Bihar, it has to be done on priority, but the chief minister of Bihar came to know it after ruling the state for around 20 years, holding the flag of growth and development.