Mangaluru: The government is likely to make it mandatory for property owners in the jurisdiction of Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) to get property register (PR) cards which are a set of five or six sheets of paper on which all details of the property are printed.
The Urban Property Ownership Records (UPOR) project was launched in the city three-and-half years ago to issue PR cards, but according to P. Srinivas, Project Officer, UPOR, Mangaluru and Deputy Director, Land Records, Dakshina Kannada, till now it was not mandatory to get the cards. However, the government is likely to make it mandatory within three months.
He said that the survey of properties in 32 villages under the MCC had been completed. Of 1, 43,252 properties in the jurisdiction of MCC, documents of 70,363 properties have been collected. But 80 per cent documents received at the office of the UPOR, near Mangaluru Taluk Panchayat in Hampankatta, was insufficient. It meant property owners have not submitted some of the documents required.
He said that of the documents collected about 40 per cent documents pertained to flats and apartments. Though flat, apartment owners had submitted the documents, issuing draft property register cards to them had been delayed. It was because it required different software for data entry. As the government released the software a few days ago, data entry has begun two days ago. Distribution of draft PR cards to such property owners (in flats, apartments) would start after a fortnight.
The project had aimed at providing an accurate database of land records which would reduce encroachment, land disputes, and help ease the process of buying and selling land. Presently, the location of property was sketchily given in the sale deed, while no other information about the property was given. Whereas, in a PR card, not only would it have a GPS-coordinated sketch of the land, it would have the loans, encumbrances, mortgages, sales of the property in the last decade of so.
Once obtaining PR card was made mandatory, sale of land in the future would be done only through PR card, instead of multiple documents, which have allowed third-party persons to illegally transact land. The PR card will cost in the range from Rs. 300 to Rs. 1,500 depending on the property size and other factors.
