The Municipal Administration Department secured national recognition for its initiatives in geo-tagging over 12 lakh constructions spread over 72 urban local bodies across Telangana.
The State has been awarded the Skoch Golden Award for its performance in linking all the structures along with their property tax details in association with the Indian Space Research Organisation’s National Remote Sensing Agency. The geo-tagging achieved through the Bhuvan geo-portal would ensure that the location of the structure along with its neighbourhood including the vacant spaces, if any, could be known online.
Details online
The Municipal Administration department had hosted the entire details online enabling owners to view their properties from anywhere across the globe. These details had also been linked with the Registration Department’s website which enables viewers to know about the transaction details of the properties including the encumbrance details.
The facility would also inform about the disputes/restrictions if any pertaining to the specific property to prospective buyers.
The technology has enabled the government to provide information relating to properties in a transparent manner, Municipal Administration Director T.K. Sridevi said. The first of its kind initiative in the country would equip the State to further improve its rankings in the Ease of Doing Business parameters.
Tax net
The department had already identified more than 20,000 structures which were yet to provide their property tax details and initiated the process to bring them under the tax structure. The department was also comparing the details incorporated in the records with the data obtained through technology to revise property tax wherever needed. The State bagged another award for utilising satellite technology for revisiting records of properties in Nalgonda district. A survey conducted by the department using the Geographical Information System and mobile technology together on an experimental basis yielded fruitful results with the property tax receipts registering a two-fold rise without any increase in the tax. Technology helped the department to identify minute details of the structures in addition to integrating the details of the property owners along with their Aadhaar numbers online, she said.
The department was actively examining the proposal to launch a State-wide survey using GIS and mobile technologies following the success of the pilot project in Nalgonda, she added.
