Deccan Chronicle 03.02.2011
Soon, urban properties will have ownership record
February 3rd, 2011Feb. 2: Akin to the Centre’s move to provide unique identification (UID) numbers to citizens, urban properties in Karnataka will soon have a unique identity — Urban Property Ownership Record (UPOR) or Form 13, which will soon be a must for all regulatory and legal purposes.
The Department of Survey Settlement and Land Records (SSLR) has started a pilot project in five towns of the state — Mangalore, Bellary, Mysore, Hubli-Dharwad, and Shimoga in a Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode at a cost of around `40 crore. “The reason behind the UPOR, which is being implemented as per the provisions of Karnataka Land Revenue Act and Rules, is to give authentic property ownership records to genuine owners and to detect and save government property which has been encroached.
“As of now there are no valid ownership documents for urban properties. People depend on khata and sale deeds, which are not ownership documents. In the absence of the PR card, which is Form 13 of the KLR Rules (ownership documents of urban areas), people believe that khata and sale deeds are ownership records. The SSLR has the mandate to create and maintain urban property ownership records and issue Form 13 to genuine owners. The property card for irregular and encroached properties will be marked so that there can be no transaction on them,” said secretary, revenue department, Rajiv Chawla.
He added that the SSLR department will send the details of encroachment and irregular properties to the government for a policy decision on them. Since the UPOR Project involves mapping and measuring of all properties; the department has launched a massive awareness campaign in these five towns to educate the people on property rights; the UPOR and why it is important to have such a record. Later they will call for objections from the public.
“We are measuring and mapping all individual properties in the five towns, collecting ownership documents from each household along with the tax paid receipts (khata) and layout maps,” said Mr K.V. Rudresha, deputy director, SSLR, Bengaluru.
