Technical snag hits leave and licence agreements across Maharashtra

PUNE: Aniruddha Gaddewar, a city-based entrepreneur, had applied for an online leave and licence agreement on the portal of department of registration and stamps more than a fortnight ago. But he is still waiting for the process to be completed.
The same is the case with Hetal Tamas, a student, who has not got her registered rent agreement even after applying for it early this month. Technical glitches in property registration server have affected the online leave and licence agreements across the state, with over 25,000 documents pending with the registration department. Gaddewar, who urgently needed to submit a copy of the rental agreement copy for a business-related work, has knocked on the doors of the property registration office several times, but to no avail. "I have submitted all the documents, but the application is still pending. It has been a long wait and I really don't know what I should do," he said.
Tamas said that she is not sure how long she can stay on the rented premises unless the rental agreement is cleared by the property registration department. Pravin Kapse, who has rented out his flat, submitted the application on March 11. "It's more than a month now and the application is still pending. My housing society has been asking for a copy of the rent agreement of the tenant and I am not sure when I will be able to submit the same," he said. Sachin Shinghvi, president, Association of Service Providers, said that cities such as Mumbai and Pune have a huge pendency of leave and licence registrations.
"The state wants people to register their documents, but the technical glitches are not being addressed. Rental agreements generate a huge amount of revenue and should be immediately attended to by service providers," he said. The association has met officials to speed up the registration process. They have also demanded a good backup system so that citizens do not have to suffer because of technical glitches.
State IGR H H Sonawane told TOI that there has been a server issue and the National Informatics Centre (NIC) has been looking into it. "We are working towards addressing the issue," he said
Abhishek Deshmukh, deputy inspector general (IT) also confirmed the same, adding that efforts are being made to clear the applications "We do have a pendency because of the technical glitch and the NIC is working towards addressing the issue," he said.
The state registration department has allowed associate service providers since 2019 to help people with registration of leave and licence agreements from home. The process requires registration of necessary documents, biometric prints and Aadhaar numbers at the offices of ASPs or at citizens' homes. A citizen needs to pay Rs1,000 for registration at doorstep and Rs700, if the work is done at offices of the ASPs.