Bhoomi, Karnataka’s Model Land Records Software, Hacked For The Third Time

Due to a security breach in the Bhoomi software, introduced in 2002, 19 acres of government wasteland in the outskirts of Bengaluru, near Devanahalli, was ‘conveyed’ to a private individual during the previous week illegally, reported Economic Times.

Land values near Devanahalli have been sky-rocketing due to the presence of the Kempegowda International Airport. Land-sharks are reported to be behind the dilution of records. Introduced as a reform in digitising land records, Bhoomi was introduced in 2002, and this is the third time the software is being hacked.

For the first time, an incident was reported in Mangaluru, when the software was hacked to change the mutation of a government property. Following this incident, another attempt had been done to change the RTC (Record of Rights, Tenancy and Crop Formation) of a 9-acre land in Kolar, again to a private person. The investigation has still not been completed.

It is said that there is involvement of an insider in these cases, to help the mafia grab unused government land. Due to the fact that modifications made can be tracked immediately, the department has been able to identify the changes made.

Revenue Department officials, however, are convinced that there is nothing to be worried about, and that they are finding out similar cases of manipulation from the past. The process will take another month or two.

Additionally, the department is encrypting the software, which prevents even the officials from having access to the database. Furthermore, they plan to centralise the database.