The Hindu : Karnataka News : A boon to property owners in the State

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Tuesday, Jan 12, 2010
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Karnataka

Karnataka

A boon to property owners in the State

Staff Reporter

Project set to drive away worries over fraudulent transactions

BANGALORE: Property owners fearing fraudulent transactions of their properties by unscrupulous elements can heave a sigh of relief. For the first time in the country, the Urban Property Ownership Records (UPOR) project has been launched in Karnataka that will not only prevent such transactions, but is also expected to increase property tax collection.

Once the project is completed, UPOR certificate will be the only valid ownership certificate and the Stamps and Registration Department will register transactions of only those properties that exist in the UPOR system. The project will be implemented in Shimoga, Mangalore, Bellary, Mysore and Hubli-Dharwad at a cost of Rs. 40 crore in the first phase, and will be ready for service delivery by September 2010. It will be extended to 276 urban centres in phases.

Under the project, the Department of Survey Settlement and Land Records will create property records by surveying all urban properties and verifying titles, and create an electronic repository for storage of property records. “Nearly 7.5 lakh properties in the five selected cities will be surveyed, and the project will be implemented in public-private partnership (PPP) model,” said department Commissioner Rajeev Chawla on Monday, during the signing of master service agreements with service providers for UPOR project.

Haphazard

At present, property records in urban areas are maintained in a haphazard manner, and municipalities maintain khata records of properties, which are merely records kept for the purpose of tax collection. However, in the absence of any other system of property record, the municipal khata has become a deemed tax record and citizens pay property tax to demonstrate their ownership over a particular property.

However, properties, whose ownership is in dispute in courts, will not be included in the database till the courts give a final decree, an official said.

Property owners holding genuine titles to property will be assured of their ownership and prospective buyers will be assured of the genuineness of the property offered for sale. Banks will be sure of lending loan against property and urban local bodies will have a comprehensive database of all properties in their cities, which is likely to increase property tax collection.

The new system is also likely to regulate building plan permissions and protect government properties from encroachment. Revenue Minister G. Karunakar Reddy, who presided over the function, said by next year, the project would be extended to 15 to 25 urban centres across the State. “More cities would be added by March/April 2011, as the pilot project in the five cities would be completed by August 2010,” he said and added that property owners should be provided an environment where they could invest their life-time savings on property purchase.

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