Bangladesh: Digitizing Land Records to Combat Corruption

I like the comment that organizer of Digital Land Systems [BN] Mustafa Jabbar makes on Blogymate that to make information more accessible they need to make it possible for people to access records from non-internet means -  telephone. This is a reminder that urban computing efforts are not always internet based - it can be analog - short-wave radio and etc. - tricia

excerpt from the article written by Aparna Ray

To deal with these problems of fraud and corruption,  the government is working to digitize the land records and the land management system to infuse some level of transparency and accountability into the sector and curb the rampant corruption. Currently, a digital database has been created for Dhaka city, and over 0.42 million land records have been uploaded into the database, which is soon to be inaugurated by the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Other initiatives, either private or public sector led, are being actively considered. For example, Terra Tech Ltd, a conglomerate of 10 local IT Companies, has proposed a digital mapping and land revenue management system, which has received the green light from the government. The department hopes that these initiatives will be steps in the right direction for implementing the government’s Vision 2021 of a Digital Bangladesh and will usher in a more effective land management system in Bangladesh….

In one of his articles on Digital Land Systems [BN] on the blog Blogymate, Mustafa Jabbar, who is the developer of the Bijoy Bangla software and keyboard in Bangladesh, has pointed out that the mere digitization of land records will not be enough to achieve transparency and accountability….Furthermore, he feels that having all of this information is not enough. It needs to be made accessible to people in an easy, user-friendly manner, not only via the Internet but through the telephony system as well. According to him, just as a consumer can now access his/ her telephone bill from home through the interactive voice response system, it should be as easy for a person to access land related information.