Almost six years after the launch of the Urban Property Ownership Record (UPOR) project, the State government is yet to make property register (PR) cards compulsory for property-related transactions in the city.
UPOR was launched on a pilot basis in Mysuru in 2010. It entailed digitising property records after a scientific survey besides providing spatial details such as encumbrance, land area, building details, rights of property, and history of transactions in the PR cards.
The objective was to curb fraudulent property deals and ensure transparency in transactions, thus reducing property disputes arising out of fraudulent claims. The PR cards were expected to serve as the only tenable document for regulatory and legal purposes. They were deemed a must for all transactions, including sale, purchase, change of khata and any other mutation of property, and for availing bank loans.
In the months that followed, although the government twice announced that PR cards would be made compulsory in Mysuru, it backtracked under pressure both times when it came to implementation.
The UPOR project office in Mysuru has completed survey of more than 3.25 lakh properties — including in 42 villages around the city which are covered by the project — and has generated 1.3 lakh draft PR cards so far.
Sources in the UPOR office told The Hindu that till date, about 30,000 final PR cards have been issued out of the 1.3 lakh draft cards. “The draft cards are automatically rendered into final PR cards if there are no objections filed by the owners within 30 days. This in effect means that almost half the properties in Mysuru will become eligible to have PR cards,” a source said.
Lack of documents
It is speculated that one of the reasons PR cards have not been made compulsory is that there are almost 60,000 properties for which PR cards cannot be issued because of lack of adequate documents to establish the authenticity of ownership.
In many cases there are no sale deeds issued by the City Improvement Trust Board (CITB) or the local authority either. At best, they have a transaction deed printed on a Rs.5 or Rs.10 stamp paper, which is not considered an authentic property document. “Only a policy intervention by the government can pave the way for issuing PR cards to nearly 60,000 properties without valid documents,” a source said.
What is UPOR?
Launched as a pilot project in Mysuru in 2010
Nearly 3.25 lakh
properties surveyed
Includes 42 villages surrounding Mysuru
1.3 lakh draft PR
cards generated
30,000 final PR
cards distributed
60,000 properties don’t have valid documents
