By Alok S, Team Mangalorean
Pics by Violet Pereira

Mangalore: Speaking to media persons at the District Commissioner's office here on Saturday June 16 Karnataka Legislative Assembly Dy Speaker Yogish Bhat and Commissioner of the Department of Survey, Settlement and Land Records V Ponnuraj in the presence of Mangalore DC Dr Channappa Gowda said that Property Card (PR) will be issued by the goverment.

Accurate and well maintained land records are of great necessity for a smooth functioning economic system. Property ownership records for urban areas is more essential in the present situation as urbanization has picked up a faster pace when compared to the earlier times. A new project, Urban Property Ownership Records (UPOR) has been taken by the Department of  Survey Settlement and Land Records(SSLR). The project will run as per the provisions of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act and Rules in  five towns namely Mangalore, Bellary, Mysore, Hubli-Dharwad and Shimoga on a pilot basis in Public-Private-Partnership mode. The SSLR department has been undertaking city surveys for the last ninety years.

The UPOR project, the department will prepare ownership document in Form -13, also called the 'PR Card'. The PR card is similar to the records of Rights Tenancy and Crops (RTC) but has more features than just land specifications.

The need for the PR card is due to the absence of  a proper title document for urban properties, which had resulted in the Khaata' card to be considered as a title document. The RTC is only for the land and not multiple properties on land, and therefore cannot handle vertical growth. RTC will gradually be stopped in future in case of converted lands. The UPOR project will take up the conversion sketches. PR card will be the only document acceptable by the court of law and hence would be made mandatory for all transactions.

The PR card holds several benefits for the citizens/organisations and also to the government. The PR card boasts of highly accurate data , on map and ownership, as each property would be identified by coordinates. The property buyers would be
having an advantage over the PR as it would also disclose the genuine ownership , mortgages, restrictions by the govt, court orders passed and other info on the property.

The sellers would also be at ease as the PR card would make selling a less cumbersome procedure.

The bankers would be able to get details about existing mortgages, court disputes, ownership information and also therefore could do away with legal opinions.

Ponnuraj said "After legal amendments made , Karnataka will be the first state in the country to implement the PR card.

As thirty to thirty five per cent of citizens of Mangalore reside abroad, I request the web media to publicise about the project so that the NRI land owners can get in touch with the helpline that will be set up soon. Since the PR card switch over need submission of the land document copies, we will open up an office in the MCC building"

The PR card will cost an around Rs 300 to Rs 1500 depending on the individual property size and other factors.

"I request the people to write down the 'khaata' number, so that we could go  ahead smoothly with the proceedings", said Ponnuraj.