How Govt's Plan To Map Your Property Digitally Will Help You

If you hold a bank account anywhere in India, you must link it with your Aadhaar number by December 31 this year to be able to carry out transactions. Similarly, your service provider may sever the mobile connection in case you fail to link your six-digit unique identification number by February 6, 2018. If you have an insurance policy, you have to follow the linking process.

It is relevant to mention here that the Centre in June this year notified the Prevention of Money Laundering (Maintenance of Records) Second Amendment Rules, 2017, making Aaadhar and PAN/Form 60 mandatory for availing of financial services. The idea is to bolster transparency in the financial system. In an address at an ASEAN business forum recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that linking of the Aadhaar database with financial transactions is part of the process to bring transparency in the financial sector. "We are using our Unique ID system in financial transactions and taxation for this purpose and the results are already visible," Modi said.

Along the same lines, the government is now planning to provide a unique digital identity to properties also.

According to media reports, the Department of Posts has tied up with Delhi-based MapmyIndia to launch a pilot project in this regard. Initially, three postal pin locations — two in Delhi and One in Noida — have been chosen to map address digitally. Depending on the success of the project, it is likely to be rolled out across the country. Under the project, a six-digit alphanumeric digital identity will be provided to each property in the three locations. The database created through this e-location project can then be used to establish property ownership, property tax liabilities and information on utilities. This could be the start of an era where disputes regarding property tiles may come to an end.

How will this help the common man?

End of doubt over ownership tiles: A buyer has to run from pillar to post to verify whether a property that he is interested in legally belongs to the party that is selling it. As there is no availability of digital information in India as far as land records are concerned, buyers are often duped by unscrupulous sellers. A lot of their problems will end if homebuyers in India have a digital platform to check out records of property.  

Easy access to utilities: Your power and water bills will be generated and issued digitally. The entire hassle of doing the work manually will exist no more. In fact, a copy of your water bill will be enough to establish your ownership of a property. In case you plan to sell it at some stage, this could come really handy.

Movement made easy: And, then reaching your destination will become much easier, too, if the e-Loc project is rolled out across the country. "eLoc will help travellers and commuters search, share and navigate to a destination's exact doorstep far more easily and quickly. It will also reduce time, money, fuel wastage and expenses for businesses in the e-commerce, transportation, logistics and field operations domains," MapmyIndia Managing Director Rakesh Verma was quoted by The Times of India as saying.

Better disaster management: Authorities involved in disaster management could use the digital information to improve performance. In a disaster situation, e-Locs database can be used to map the affected area in within a short time. This will ensure a swift and efficient response from the management authorities.