Alt tag: S M Krishna, Karnataka's IT-savvy CM Bangalore: Gone are the days when farmers were at the mercy of village accounts to keep their land records. Today's e-savvy farmer with electronic land records at his disposal could do without the village accountant.

A revolution of sorts has been achieved by Karnataka, which has taken e-governance to the grass roots. Its "Bhoomi" has brought back the smile on the weather-beaten face of the farmer.

The project which has been declared a role-model will not only be replicated in all the other states of the country, but has also attracted international attention.

Vice-president, Poverty Reduction Network, World Bank, Govind Nankani during his recent visit to Bangalore evinced interest in "exporting this innovation to other developing countries".

Karnataka's focus now was to make Bhoomi the core application for other such information kiosks to become viable, Rajiv Chawla, additional secretary, revenue department, the brain behind pioneering project, said.

"Our target is to provide connectivity to 1,000 such kiosks covering all villages in the state in the next one year with private participation," he said.

The thrust of the government is broad-banding the "Bhoomi" kiosks by utilising these for multifarious initiatives including weather details, agriculture extension services through agricultural universities, details of beneficiaries of various government schemes like distribution of ration cards, widow pension and Ashraya scheme, Chawla said.

Information dissemination through Bhoomi kiosks would improve the administration to a great extent, bringing in transparency and accountability. Besides, it would empower the farmers with all the facts and details needed thereby ending their exploitation, he said.

PTI