Need to work on flaws to improve efficiency, say deed writers, advocates

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, September 5

Two months after the state government made registration of properties online, deed writers and advocates are of the view that there are many shortcomings that need to be plugged to improve its efficiency.

They said a majority of the properties in the walled city did not require mutation, but a fee was charged on their sale and purchase.

Deed writer Ravi Kumar said, “There is no online provision for dispossession deed, known as ‘Farkati’. Similarly, the partition deed for dividing a property is also cannot be done on the website. Besides, the rent deed is not listed. The combine sale of residential and commercial properties cannot be performed as well. There are a large number of properties in the city which have commercial exposure apart from being residential.”

“As land prices have skyrocketed, people, especially commercial property owners, have started building multi-storey buildings. So there is greater need to sell floor areas,” he added.

Advocate Mahinder Gupta said an identifier was required to approve that the  person in question was a domicile citizen during the registration of properties in previous times. 

He said now, the government had issued various identification documents like Aadhaar and voter cards, a copy of which is enough to be enclosed with the documents. 

Standing in the district courts, where the Revenue Office is situated, Surjit Singh, a resident said, he had applied for an appointment for registry and he was asked to appear after three days. 

To efficiently administer the Revenue Department, the city is divided into two wings — Tehsil I and Tehsil II. 

Before the introduction of the online registry of properties, an announcement was made to create another wing of Amritsar-III. However, the work on this is yet to be carried out.        

Another advocate Rajnish Arora said, “The software does not accept revenue stamps above the collector rate, which is minimum and in some cases, people need to deposit above this to register any property.”

When contacted, Deputy Commissioner KS Sangha said there were some teething problems and as soon as these were reported, his department was forwarding these to the government to resolve at the earliest. 

The Deputy Commissioner said the third tehsil would be established in the city if its need was felt.