The Hindu : Karnataka News : Guidance values up by 15 to 45 p.c.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 14, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Guidance values up by 15 to 45 p.c.

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, SEPT. 13. The guidance values for registration of property have been revised across the State, except Mysore and Mangalore, where the property value is being fixed.

The Minister for Revenue and Muzrai, M.P. Prakash, at a meet the press programme organised here today by the Press Club of Bangalore in connection with the completion of 100 days of the Dharam Singh-led coalition Government, said the guidance values had been revised upwards by 15 to 45 per cent in most places following the increase in the market value of land over the past year. The guidance value fixation committees comprised, among others, property owners and officials of the Revenue Department.

Revenue to go up

He said the revenue to the Government from stamps and registrations would also witness a jump this year following the revision in the guidance values. The State Government had anticipated a revenue of Rs. 1,650 crores from stamps and registrations this year and the amount was expected to cross Rs. 1,750 crores.

Mr. Prakash said registration of property could be done online from the coming year and this would ease the rush and corruption in the offices of the sub-registrars. The software for this scheme was being developed and it would be made foolproof to prevent malpractice.

Meanwhile, a central sub-registrar's office would be opened in Bangalore shortly and property in any area in Bangalore could be registered at the office unlike the present scenario where property in a given area had to be registered only at the jurisdictional office.

A new Revenue Commissionerate would be set up in Bangalore and the Revenue Commissioner would supervise the functioning of all the deputy commissioners in the districts.

Task force

Mr. Prakash said the State Government would shortly constitute a special task force to prevent encroachments, particularly on land around tanks and lakes in and around Bangalore. This task force would be in addition to the ones constituted by the Bangalore Development Authority and the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike. Based on the requirement, similar task forces would be constituted in some of the other cities such as Mysore, Hubli-Dharwad and Belgaum.

The Minister said the land grant rules would be amended to ensure that only charitable trusts and societies that had complied with the rules and were in existence for over five years would be eligible for land grants. Further the land allotted to them had to be utilised only for the stated purpose. A review of the land grants made over the past six months had indicated that there were gross violations, and steps would be taken to recover the lands.

Mr. Prakash said the administrative buildings for four of the seven new districts formed by the J.H. Patel Government were almost ready and they would be opened shortly. The State and Union Governments had each contributed Rs. 74 crores for developing infrastructure, particularly for the construction of the administrative buildings in the new districts. The buildings were nearing completion in Haveri, Bagalkot, Koppal and Chamarajanagar, while in Udupi, Gadag and Davangere some disputes had resulted in construction being delay.

The Revenue Department had decided to merge the ambitious Bhoomi and the Cauvery projects pertaining to computerisation of land records. The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, had praised the project and called upon other States to follow Karnataka's example.

Recruitment

Directions had been issued to the Karnataka Public Service Commission to recruit 130 tahsildars immediately, failing which the Revenue Department would opt for direct recruitment.

Referring to the performance of the Muzrai Department, he said that as part of the Dasara celebrations at Mysore, an exhibition of temple ornaments would be organised. There were a number of rich temples in the State and a number of them had received gifts from several rulers, including Tipu Sultan, Krishnadevaraya and the Wadiyars.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka