Now, Download Registered Papers of city Properties Transaction Histories Can Be Studied

Sandeep Ashar TNN 

    The process of buying and renting property in Mumbai has just got a lot simpler. As part of its e-governance initiative, the Maharashtra government on Thursday launched an internet facility that allows citizens to download registered property documents. 
    With the introduction of the service, citizens no longer have to depend on real estate agents or make multiple trips to registration offices to procure certified hard copies of property transactions. It also reduces possibilities of cheating by opening up the transaction history of a property. 
    The feature is available under the eSearch facility on the official website (igrmaharashtra.gov.in) of the inspector general of registration (IGR). 
     The inspector general, S Chockalingam, said the service has been initiated for documents registered in 14 of the 23 registration offices in Mumbai on a pilot basis, but will soon be extended for all centres across the state. It currently provides details of registered transactions of properties from January 1, 2002, to December 31, 2011. But soon steps will be taken to make available documents registered before 2002 and in 2012. 
    Chockalingam noted that Maharashtra is the first state in the country to initiate such a facility. He explained that the time required to download a document from the website will be less than 30 minutes. This, however, is a bigimprovement on the current state of affairs, where procuring hard copies of a certified document can often take several days. 
    Equally importantly, the feature will facilitate the process of selecting real estate. If a citizen is interested in purchasing a property, say, in Bandra but would first like to conduct a thorough search of records, all he or she now needs to know is its city survey number (or the Milkat number or the plot number) and the concerned revenue village. Entering these details on the IGR website will throw up the property’s transaction history. 
    Chockalingam said documents can be downloaded for free from the site during its test run, which would last about a week. After that, a lump-sum fee will be charged. The facility will make the registration process more citizen-friendly, said Chockalingam, adding that it will “reduce footfall at registration offices and increase their work efficiency. Roughly 20% people visiting registration offices come for certified copies of registered documents.” 
    Vinod Sampat, president of Registration Fee and Stamp Duty Payers Association, welcomed the initiative, but cautioned that its effectiveness will be known after extended use. 
 
WEB OF SIMPLICITY EASIER NETTING  
Go to igrmaharashtra.gov.in. Click ‘eSearch’ under the ‘Online Facilities’ menu 
Enter in the available fields details of the district, the revenue village, the CTS No./Milkat No./Survey No./Plot No. and press submit. The site will provide a unique document ID. Go to Download Document and enter the ID. Click on the Download icon 
 

DOCU DRAMA The new internet facility has been initiated for 14 of the 23 registration offices in Mumbai. Their names appear on the website. At present, the site has documents registered between January 1, 2002, and December 31, 2011. The service is free for now, but a fee will be charged in a week or so Currently, registration offices charge 5 (Xerox) and 20 (printout) per page for a copy of a certified document. In 2011-12, certified copies were sought of roughly 40% of the 2 lakh documents registered in Mumbai. In 2011-12, a total of 23.58 lakh documents were registered in Maharashtra.

Agents’ role shrinks as e-governance kicks in 
    Real estate agents, who currently play a key role in property transactions, are all set to lose their domination. The state government plans to introduce a slew of e-governance measures that will ensure that citizens have direct access to the process of stamp duty and registration. Over the next few months, it intends to roll out a facility for online registration first of rental documents and then of all property transactions. It also wants to introduce a system whereby registrations could be undertaken at home by calling authorised personnel. All these steps will be in addition to standardisation of templates for sale and rental deeds.


Source:::: The Times of India, 18-01-2013, p.02, http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=TOIM&showST=true&login=default&pub=TOI&Enter=true&Skin=TOINEW&AW=1358485709575