Hubballi taluk record room goes fully digital

Farmers and the general public will no longer have to make repeated visits to the taluk office or depend on middlemen to obtain old land and property records, as the Hubballi Tahsildar’s office now has a fully digitised record room. As part of the government’s land record computerisation initiative, Hubballi was selected as a pilot project in Dharwad district. The digitisation work, taken up in 2024 and completed in November 2025, has resulted in 1.37 lakh crucial administrative and land records being completely digitised.

The project was aimed at two things — making records easily available to the public and preserving old documents that were at risk of being damaged over time. Some of the records in the Hubballi record room are 80 to 100 years old. To carry out the work, the department provided computers, scanners and data entry operators. The records were sorted into different categories based on their importance and retention period. Permanent records in the A and B categories were selected for digitisation and long term preservation.

The digital repository includes important land records such as Pahani (RTC), D-Utara, 7 and 7A order copies, sale deeds, partition records (Vat ni), inheritance records (Varasa) and bank encumbrance (Bhoja) records, among others. Citizens can access their records through the government’s record room portal by entering details such as the district, taluk, and village and survey number. The required document can then be downloaded in PDF format after paying the applicable fee through digital payment facilities. The system is expected to significantly reduce the time citizens spend at government offices.

In stead of waiting for days or weeks for an old document to be traced from physical files, people can now obtain digitised records within minutes, offi cials said. Those who need assistance can also submit their requests at the taluk office, where staff can help them access the dig ital records. Preserving old records Speaking to News Trail, Hubballi Urban Tahsildar Mahesh Gaste said the digitisation has also helped protect thousands of fragile paper documents from repeated handling and deteriora- tion. Temporary records that fall under categories meant for limited retention will continue to be disposed of according to the prescribed rules.

Hubballi is among the taluks in Dharwad district to have completed the digitisation of its record room. Annigeri and Alna var have also completed the process, while work is continuing in Dharwad, Navalgund, Kundgol and Kalghatgi taluks. “Hubballi was selected as one of the pilot projects along with a few other taluk offices. There is no ranking to claim that we were the first to make the record room digital, but certainly, we have achieved something crucial,” Gaste said. He said digitisation would not end with the completion of the current project.

Newly closed files will also be sent to the record room for scanning and uploading regularly, ensuring that the digital repository remains updated. Farmers welcome the move Shivaputrappa Kanavi, a farmer from Bhairide varakoppa, said the digitisation of the record room had reduced the hassle of visiting the government office. “The process used to consume a lot of time and energy. I recently experienced the new system when I obtained my Pahani from a nearby cyber centre. The process was very simple. I received the required document within minutes after completing the OTP verification and paid Rs 20 for a one-page printout,” he said.