Aadhaar fence around land to deter grabbers

Porvorim: In light of the recent land grab cases, the government intends to take concrete measures, including Aadhaar linkage, to prevent land sharks from usurping land of hapless Goans. Chief minister Pramod Sawant in his budget speech on Wednesday announced that property title deeds will be linked through an online database with Aadhaar numbers, while modern record rooms will be established in every taluka where property records will be stored.
Simultaneously, the government intends to upgrade the department of settlement and land record’s online property register, which will allow people to verify the owners of the property and other information before entering into a transaction.
“Further, financial institutions will also be linked with property register so that encumbrances, if any, will be known to the public,” said Sawant.
The Sawant government has proposed to notify new land rates that are market driven and linked to rates of built-up properties, which will be used as ready reckoners for the purpose of calculation of stamp duty and registration fee.
Sawant plans to also develop mobile applications to locate and identify properties on a real-time basis.
While looking for avenues to increase revenue and crackdown on illegalities, Sawant has also promised to give relief to co-operative housing societies that failed to get the land transferred in their name.
“As a one-time measure, I propose flat rate of fees for registration deeds if these societies come forward and register their deeds within the fixed deadline. Similar benefits will also be extended to individuals who have entered into agreements for sale of small plots and constructed their residential houses and are staying in these flats without executing sale deeds,” said Sawant.