Attempts by the State government to streamline property and ownership details by uploading them on to the Dharani portal could give rise to chaos within GHMC purview, if all the issues linked with ownership are not factored in.
Officials say data of properties in the city is being obtained from the property tax records of the GHMC, which will be entered into the Dharani portal by the Revenue authorities. As of now, it is not clear if mutation in property tax records will be carried out simultaneously by comparing it with the data obtained from the records of the Registration department.
If it is not done, officials will have to deal with a sea of disputes arising out of properties for which ownership is yet to be mutated in the GHMC records.
Lack of relevant papers
Officials say there are thousands of properties for which mutations are pending in property tax records for the want of relevant documents. “Registration was being done in the name of whoever sought it, without going into the validity of the ownership. Due to this, and several other reasons, there is mismatch between the seller’s name in the registration documents, and the owner’s name in the GHMC property tax records. We are asking the buyers to bring the link documents pertaining to previous ownership for carrying out mutation in GHMC records,” informed an official.
There are also cases wherein the ownership has not been mutated for property tax for a long time spanning across multiple transactions. Besides, several property owners have not even bothered to approach GHMC for change of ownership, and assessment for property tax purposes.
With government claiming that once entered in Dharani portal, the ownership will be non-negotiable, there could be a scramble among current owners to the corporation office.
Clueless GHMC
GHMC officials are as yet clueless about the process, as no guidelines have been issued to them so far.
Flagging the same issue, CPI(M) City secretary M.Srinivas demanded that the government should give sufficient time for all the property owners to register their ownership, rather than aiming to finish the project within 15 days. The party is also demanding a household survey to resolve such issues, and the draft record of the Dharani website to be placed before the public for verification of ownership, before finalisation.
Mobile courts and tribunals should be established to resolve any disputes arising out of mismatch in ownership, Mr.Srinivas said.