The Karnataka government received permission from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to conduct a survey of properties in Bengaluru using drones as part of its ambitious but long-delayed Urban Property Ownership Records project (UPOR). As part of a pilot programme, the government will cover at least 30,000 properties in the wards of Pattabhirama Nagar (number 168), Ganesh Mandir (number 165), and Shakambarinagar (number 179). Staff from Survey Settlement And Land Records (SSLR) will carry out the project under the revenue department. It is being led by Rajeev Chawla, additional chief secretary (e-governance), who previously led the Bhoomi project, which digitised more than 2.5 crore RTCs (Records of Rights, Tenancy, and Crops) of agricultural land across rural areas, according to Revenue Secretary Tushar Girinath. According to Chawla, surveyors working for the SSLR commissioner will visit each plot or piece of land to make a record and determine who owns it. The procedure should be completed by the end of December. The government has the authority to conduct a survey using a private firm In case of any technical or other problems with the SoI survey. One company has offered to conduct it for free and has been placed on the waiting list. According to Chawla, there has been no tampering of land records since the implementation of Bhoomi, and citizens are at ease. Unlike rural or agricultural land records, which were available in manual format, there were no proper records for urban properties other than those kept for tax purposes by agencies, which have no legal value in civil disputes, since they were not created under the Karnataka Land Revenue Act. Chawla explained that the government has two specific goals when creating property records in urban areas. The first one is to ensure that no government or public land is illegally occupied and the second is to avoid penalising individuals for minor infractions like failing to obtain an approved plan. Image Source Also read: Villages in Kerala to be mapped through drone technology Also read: Govt nods usage of drones for 10 firms for various purposes