SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir government on Monday acknowledged that hundreds of traditional land records, including “Massavis” and “Latha” maps, have deteriorated over decades of use, with many rendered illegible or missing, even as it said a Union Territory-wide digitisation and reconstruction exercise is underway to modernise the revenue record system.
The disclosure came in response to a starred Assembly question tabled by MLA Vijay Kumar, with the Revenue Department confirming that a significant number of village maps—central to land ownership and boundary records—have suffered physical degradation due to age and prolonged handling.
Official data indicates that out of 6,850 village maps across Jammu and Kashmir, as many as 545 are missing or dilapidated, of which 247 have been traced or recreated so far, while 254 remain under process. The situation varies across districts, with higher pendency reported in districts such as Udhampur, Kishtwar, Reasi and Jammu.
The government said it has initiated a structured digitisation process to preserve and modernise these records. Old maps have been scanned using high-resolution imaging, converted into digital formats while retaining original scale, and subsequently geo-referenced to align them with real-world coordinates. This, officials said, is aimed at improving accuracy and usability for administrative, legal and planning purposes.
In addition, a circular issued earlier this year has directed all tehsildars to undertake the reconstruction of dilapidated maps within their jurisdictions, signalling an administrative push to complete the long-pending exercise.
On concerns related to incomplete settlement operations in parts of Kathua district, particularly Hiranagar, the government clarified that settlement is conducted on a tehsil and village basis rather than constituency lines. It said that revision of records has already been completed in 154 villages of Tehsil Hiranagar, countering claims that the process was abandoned midway.
The government also rejected suggestions that pending settlement operations have stalled digitisation of land records, asserting that computerisation of revenue records in Hiranagar has been completed, with digitisation of Jamabandis continuing as an ongoing process. Grievance redressal camps have been conducted across villages, and rectification of errors in digitised records is currently underway.
Despite the progress, the scale of degradation in legacy land records underscores the challenges facing the administration in transitioning from fragile, paper-based systems to a reliable digital land information framework—an overhaul seen as critical for land governance, dispute resolution and development planning in the Union Territory.
