Mangaluru: Property card system almost in shambles

Mangaluru: The Property card system, initiated to effectively manage the city’s property records, has become a mess due to administrative apathy and confusion in its implementation.

The State government postponed the rule making it mandatory to get property card on property registrations until further orders. This has caused confusion about whether it will be made compulsory again or abandoned.

Currently, the property card issuance process is in progress, but the lack of infrastructure is compounding the problems.

The property card system covers 36 villages and has 30 sectors. Approximately 30 surveyors are required for measurement and verification. However, currently, only 10 surveyors are on the job. About 40 computers are needed for the work but only 20 are available. The public information centre for the cards has disappeared.

Moreover, the process of collecting documents from the public is also unsystematic. The documents are dumped in the existing record room without storing them sector-wise making it difficult to search for these documents during the preparation of a property card. On the other hand, server problems delay the processing of property cards.

The estimated number of properties in Mangaluru city is two lakhs. Currently, 67,000 draft properties registrations have been prepared and 50,000 cards have been finalized.

“Surveyors are assigned to various other government programs. This reduces the availability of surveyors for property card surveying. Property card processing is presently in progress. 50 draft cards have already been prepared. Arrangements are being made to speed up the process of issuing cards to the people,” said Niranjan, Deputy Director of the Geology Department.