Formalizing Land Administration through E-Governance Mechanism in Sri Lanka

Abstract

This paper proposes a comprehensive and practical approach to implement a land administration act in Sri Lanka followed by setting up a Land Administration Commission (LAC), which is a separate entity to maintain a Land Administration Database Management System in support of the land information collected and maintained by stakeholders who deal with matters related to land and its decision-making under e-governance concept. Also, It describes the operations of the four core functions: land tenure, land valuation, land use, and land development in land administration under a single sustainable national land policy, underpinned by spatial information under the e-Governance mechanism. Further, the paper identifies the stakeholders and their main responsibilities in each of the four core functions with the current issues in sharing information across stakeholders. Finally, the paper describes setting up a Land administration entity thereby empowering the LAC and introduces spatial information layers at different resolution levels in a centralized land administration spatial database to keep track of all land transactions carried out by each stakeholder. This approach will enable the top-level decision-making authority (the central level) to manage all land-related activities under one platform to contribute towards the sustainable land development of the country. It is proposed to implement this approach as a pilot activity in the district of Colombo and expand it in the entire country gradually with its output.