Maharashtra to link property tax records with Aadhar

The Maharashtra government is set to become the first in the country to link property tax records with the Unique Identification Authority of India's Aadhar scheme to serve as a business intelligence tool and define property ownership.

The state government will seed land record extracts (called saat-baara) in Mulshi near Pune and in the Wardha district with Aadhaar on a pilot basis before rolling it out across the state.

Senior state information technology (IT) officials said UIDAI data would be linked with the property tax system of urban local bodies beginning with municipal councils.

The pilot project will begin in all municipal councils in Wardha district of Vidarbha region, which has over 95 per cent Aadhaar coverage, the highest in Maharashtra. Over 6.6 crore residents have enrolled for Aadhar IDs in the state.

State information technology secretary Rajesh Aggarwal said, ''In case people do not have Aadhaar cards, they can register at the citizen facilitation centres in the councils, which will play a major part in the linkage.''

The Maharashtra government will also conduct a pilot to link UIDAI data with land record extracts in Wardha and Mulshi talukas in Pune district. This will be precursor to a state-wide rollout.

''We have decided to begin a pilot project,'' said S S Kshatriya, additional chief secretary (revenue). ''These measures will help determine exactly whom the property belongs to.''

Linking UIDAI with multiple databases like property tax and land records will also eventually help eliminate ghost beneficiaries and people who took undue benefits of welfare schemes.

Maharashtra is the first state in establishing the state resident data hub, which is a repository of UIDAI and demographic data and photographs of residents. This will help link various databases with Aadhar.