JOIN USKarnataka government starts issuing digitised property cards to owners
Property owners in the city have started receiving digitised and geo-referenced property cards containing all property-related details.
Called Urban Property Ownership Records (UPOR) cards, they have already been distributed in four wards. Distribution is under way in three more wards. “Every month we will distribute one lakh property cards,” Munish Moudgil, commissioner, survey, settlement and land records department, told DH.
The UPOR project seeks to develop comprehensive, government-issued certification of property ownership in urban areas. UPOR cards contain property sketches and ownership details with rights, titles, and interests.
Owners can apply and get the revenue department to do on-the-ground demarcation of their property boundaries. Mutations after sale will be automatic and owners won’t have to approach anybody for a ‘khata’ transfer. Holding an UPOR card will ease the process of partition, inheritance and succession because the digitised sketches allow citizens to do their own property partitions automatically. It will also help citizens get loans and other benefits from banks, Moudgil added.
The project, set in motion in 2018 to address concerns over poorly updated land records, had a stop-start initial phase because of the pandemic.
The department had sanctioned a drone survey in Bengaluru in November 2018. A pilot project was conducted in Jayanagar in Bengaluru and Ramanagara, following which a wider, two-phase survey was sanctioned for Tumakuru, Hassan, Uttara Kannada, Belagavi, and Ramnagara and Bengaluru city.
The department and the Survey of India signed a memorandum of understanding in February, 2019. The first phase of the survey was planned for 51,000 sq km (1,000 sq km for Bengaluru and adjoining areas and 50,000 sq km for the other five districts).
This city survey is a legal mandate under Karnataka Land Revenue Act 1964 and the state cabinet approved the UPOR/city survey project for Bengaluru and the rest of the state as well.
Detailed work
The drone survey of the property is only 10% of the work, said Moudgil.
“We capture the image of each property, covering every inch of Bengaluru. We then take the image to the ground and digitise the dimensions physically. After this, a notice is issued to the owner to upload all documents of ownership on the UPOR website. We also simultaneously collect BBMP records and government records. A draft card is ready and citizens will have to file objections, if any, within a month. If they don’t have any, the draft becomes final,” explained Moudgil.
The land survey department currently has 30 teams working on one lakh properties every month.
“The teams are surveying 150 properties a day, so that is about 4,500 properties a day. The drone flying and image generation of 25 lakh properties in Bengaluru is already done. We hope to complete issuance of property cards for all of Bengaluru 25 lakh properties in one-and-a half years,” he added.