The increase in fraudulent transactions related to properties based on fake documents in Mysuru has underlined the imperatives to make it mandatory to secure Property Register (PR) cards under Urban Property Ownership Record (UPOR).
The UPOR was introduced in Mysuru as a pilot project in 2010 and entails a comprehensive survey of the properties, digitizing the data and creating records embedded with spatial details based on GIS survey, land mapping, recording the mutation if any besides mentioning ownership details.
The UPOR team in Mysuru has surveyed nearly 3,23,000 properties in Mysuru and 42 villages covered by the project so far. The authorities have received nearly 2,19, 000 property documents from the owners and have created final PR cards in case of nearly 50,000 properties.
But what is disconcerting is that nearly 46,000 property owners in Mysuru do not have authentic documents and have furnished sale deed on ₹5 or ₹10 stamp paper none of which is legally tenable. Hence the UPOR has not issued PR cards in case of such properties. In addition, the UPOR project office is yet to received ownership documents in case of 1,05,000 properties that are vacant sites and hence the legal validity of ownership claims of such properties is not certain.
The objective of launching the UPOR project was to prevent fraudulent sale of properties by creating an authentic property register card as required under section 133 of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act. As per the law, the PR cards or Form 13 issued under the UPOR project is to be deemed as the only valid ownership record and the government wanted to make it compulsory. But almost 11 years after its launch there is resistance to it from the elected representatives.
When pointed out that making PR cards issued by UPOR mandatory for all transactions could prevent such frauds, MUDA Chairman H.V.Rajeev was evasive on the issue and said “he would discuss it with authorities’’. Meanwhile, sources in UPOR office have confirmed that a section of the public was aware of the UPOR concept and the office regularly received queries from potential buyers on the legal validity of the property and ownership.
