'GO on UPOR lacks clarity'

Similar orders issued by government twice this year

Following a government order issued in the month of December, making Urban Property Ownership Record (UPOR) card mandatory for property registration, several questions have been raised regarding the implementation of the same.
The government has issued similar orders, twice this year and had postponed the implementation of the same.

According to corporator B L Bhyrappa, the orders lacked clarity and was being “imposed” on the residents of Mysuru. While being implemented as a pilot project itself, there were several glaring issues, which have not been addressed. Implementing agencies should sort out these issues, before making UPOR mandatory, he said.

He said that many inhabitants of ‘original villages’ such as Ashokapuram, Paduvarahalli and others, did not possess the necessary documents to lay claim to the land they were living in.

“The properties have been inherited by these people, with no documents necessary for UPOR card. These people will face problems,” he said.

Apart from this, there are also instances where UPOR cards have been issued to encroached lands, he alleged. A complete survey of properties under Mysore City Corporation (MCC) and Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) has not been done properly. In such a situation, issuing Property Register (PR) cards would lead to further confusion in issues related to immovable properties, he said.

Noting that Akrama Sakrama scheme, which also aimed to regularise properties, was caught in a legal tangle, he wondered on what legal grounds UPOR cards could be mandatory.

Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) of MCC, Jagadish said that a copy of the order has been received, which made UPOR cards mandatory. However, no deadlines have been set for UPOR.

Instructions will be sent to all zonal offices about the government order, he said.
Responding to questions, he said that all issues regarding UPOR have been sorted out at the UPOR office in the city. He said basic documents for the property were necessary to apply for an UPOR card.

On inadequate data of properties, he said that UPOR had data on “90 per cent” of the properties.

Policy changes
Some policy changes at the government level was required to ensure that all property owners, which includes 42 villages in the outskirts of the city, included in Bruhat Mysuru Plan, get PR cards.  He added that even though there were orders making UPOR cards mandatory, awareness was lacking among the population.

Quoting an example, he said that of the 3.09 lakh properties surveyed in 42 villages, with an area of 50,000 acres, documents of only 1.87 lakh properties had been collected. “Draft PR cards have been issued to 1.08 lakh property owners and final PR card to about 15,000 people,” he said.

Noting some other constraints, he said that PR numbers could not be issued for all property owners, and about 60,000 properties fall under the list. “This is because, some property owners have not been issued khatas or other documents to prove ownership of the land,” he said.  
DH News Service