COURTESY TOI AUG 3
DC APPROVAL MUST
Hry changes registration of property sale deed rules
Manvir.Saini@timesgroup.com
Chandigarh:
The Haryana government has made sweeping changes in the process of registration of property/land sale deeds to plug the loopholes misused in the alleged registries scam, which occurred during the lockdown and covers over 30,000 sale deeds executed without the mandatory no-objection certificates (NoCs). These land sale deeds were executed without taking NoCs from the town and country planning and urban local bodies departments.
Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar had last week placed six officials of revenue department, a tehsildar and five naib tehsildars, posted in Gurgaon district under suspension for links to the alleged scam.
The state’s revenue department has now decided to delete the words ‘agriculture class’ and ‘area limit’ in the new registration system for land within control area or
within the limits of urban local bodies. Also, the urban local bodies will allot UID numbers to all properties within their jurisdiction and the seller shall have to clear all liabilities of civic bodies before transfer of plot or property.
Property sale deed registration: DC will be held responsible for any loophole
Most importantly, the registration of sale deeds would be subject to final approval by the deputy commissioners (DCs), who will be held responsible for any misuse or loopholes. The DCs will approve the sale deeds after verifying the process as well the NOCs.
“Once the software approves the registry, the deputy commissioner, who is also the collector, shall finally approve the sale deed. In case there is any confusion, the collector shall seek clarification from the concerned department before approving or rejecting the deed,” explained an official in the revenue department on condition of anonymity.
The area in the periphery of cities, which is part of the master plan but is put under agriculture use is shown as control area. In 2017, the Haryana government had made a provision that agricultural land, measuring two kanals and above, would not require any kind of NoC from any department. This rule was misused when groups of people collaborated to purchase chunks of land and developed colonies. The same kind of misuse happened during the lockdown.
According to the new rules, only the land with revenue number would be identified and the process would be completed only after the buyer or seller get clearance from the concerned departments.
“During the scrutiny of registries of last 8-9 months, we have detected these lacunae. We are duty-bound to plug all such loopholes to ensure a transparent system. Hence we have made these changes and all the changes will be visible from the day we shall start the registration process under the new system,” said deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala, who also holds the revenue portfolio.
“We don’t want to dig up the past but we shall take all corrective steps for the future. Now, the integrated software shall block all wrongdoers,” he added.
Haryana will be the first state in the country to create a centralized system for its land records and plans to implement the new system of property registration by early next year. The project to digitize the land records of the entire state is going on at present and is expected to be completed by the year-end
In February, around 100 families were found living in a residential block built on an unlicensed land in Sector 67 and the registries of their flats were done in an illegal manner. The project was named as Ansal Esencia Extension so that it looks like an approved project and part of already existing Ansal Esencia township