7. E- Mutation in Bangladesh: An Overview
Synopsis
E-Mutation is a part of the Digital Land Management project of the Bangladesh government where the mutation is conducted by the use of information and communication technologies (GoB, 2017). The land management of Bangladesh is handicapped with several problems. It follows the age-old system which breeds corruption as well as gives scope to the brokers making the citizens helpless in receiving land-related services. Fraud in land transfer, politicisation, non-cooperation of the filed level land offices, mismanagement in mutation process, negligence of land staff, etc. are responsible for the poor land management of Bangladesh (Roy, 2008). With a view to eradicating these issues and establishing a people-oriented land management system, the government of Bangladesh has undertaken several measures to digitalise the land related services. Government has already induced digital land surveys in different districts of the country (Department of Land Record and Survey, 2020). The RS (Revisional Survey) Khatian is now available online so that people can see their entitlement on land using the internet from anywhere in the world. There is also a plan for ensuring online access to all other types of Khatiyan. Currently, people can apply online for collecting Khatian (GoB, 2019a). A project is ongoing to digitalise the land registration system (The Financial Express, 2019). The government has also initiated an online land development tax payment system (BBC, 2022).