Journalism of Courage
IN an effort to curb phony property transactions, the state Inspectorate General of Registration and Stamps (IGR) has introduced a short messaging service (SMS) system for properties registered after 2013 to confirm the registration, title and ownership.
With incidences of bogus transactions and fake documents on the rise, the new system will streamline the process by enabling citizens to send an SMS to the IGR stating the registration office, the number and the year and get a confirmation immediately on whether the document is true or false, officials said.
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“The system will help citizens confirm the status of the property document instantly on their mobile phones. If they have the Index II document before them, all they have to do is type out the details of the sub-registrar office number, the registration number and the year, and they would receive an instant message that would confirm the document with the name of the owner and a link that would give more details of the document from our office,” said Ramaswami N, IGR, Maharashtra.
The IGR office has been scanning the registered documents for years and the SMS system is enabled for 72 lakh property documents registered from 2013 till now.
“The documents from 2002-2012 — about 1.89 crore — have been scanned and should be ready for this system in a month’s time,” said Santosh Ingane, a senior official from the IGR department.
While the department is also in the process of scanning documents from the period of 1985-2002, there are about 1.5 crore documents registered during this time. After the scanning is completed, nearly 30 years of documents can be checked through the SMS system, said Ingane.
