Revenue dept to survey city’s properties in July

The revenue department is preparing to start a door-to-door property survey in Bengaluru from July and issue urban property ownership records (UPOR) card to citizens.

Officials from the Survey, Settlement and Land Records have completed the physical survey of all properties in Mysuru and are issuing UPOR to the citizens.

This would be a first-of-its-kind exercise to bring uniformity and introduce a set of guidelines defining every detail concerning a property.

Survey, Settlement and Land Records commissioner Munish Modgil told DH that the physical measurement of each property will start from July. "We will start from Jayanagar 4th Block. Around 40 surveyors will undertake this exercise," he said.

The revenue department records suggest that each ward in Jayanagar has 6,000 properties and the city as a whole has 23 lakh dwelling units. But even before the survey could begin, officials are facing stiff resistance from municipalities, corporators and MLAs, who argue that holding surveys and maintaining property records are the corporation's prerogative.

Modgil quotes Section 152 of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act, 1964, which entrusts the task of holding surveys and issuing ownership records with the revenue department's survey wing.

He said a physical survey will be done to know the dimensions of the properties. This will include carpet area, floor area, number of floors and other details. Property owners will be given time to furnish their property ownership details. If not, the revenue department will use the details furnished by the corporation to create the UPOR and issue the card.

Despite planning the survey six years ago, during the tenure of the BJP government, the department had to put it off due to objections from politicians and realtors. It successfully completed the exercise in 2016 in Shivamogga district.

As a result, Shivamogga uses UPOR instead of municipality records. Soon, Mysuru will become the second district to give UPOR cards to all the properties.

The survey would: Help dwellers know what they have paid for, what they have in hand Provide standard definitions and dimensions to terms like carpet area, built-up area, super built-up area and others Provide uniform scale and definition that would replace different scales of measurements used by each builder, government agency Give clarity, independence to buyers Introduce authenticity to property registration