Property Cards In Gujarat A Great Idea For Land Reforms

Gujarat recently announced it would make property cards mandatory for 1.25 crore property holders in urban areas. This will cover all the eight municipal corporations (Ahmedabad, Bhavnagar, Gandhinagar, Jamnagar, Junagarg, Rajkot, Surat and Vadodara) and 156 municipalities across the state.  

The present system

Civic authorities maintain the Record of Right (RoR) in urban areas and issue property cards based on that while the data in rural areas are maintain in a record named 7/12 Extract. According to a media report, only 20 per cent of property holders in urban areas of Gujarat have property cards. Most of the transactions still happen using 7/12 Extract record, which is only applicable on transactions related to agricultural land.

How will the move help?

The move of making property cards mandatory will go a long way in making the processes smooth, thereby enhancing the business climate in the state for real estate investments.

A strict implementation of the new property card system will not only make book-keeping on land records easier, but also plug some major loopholes in the present set-up and arrest leakages in revenue for the government. It is to be noted that various government levies on property transactions are different in urban and rural area. The rates in urban areas are generally much higher. By issuing property cards, the state will be able to stop loss of revenue. On the other hand, by bringing in more clarity on property ownership, the government will be able to streamline the record-keeping system and land-related transactions will become foolproof, leaving no scope for any fraudulent activities.

Gujarat's business climate

The moves like these are why investors love Gujarat. Those who live here are all praise for the state. Those who travel to the beautiful cities of Gujarat, especially those from the northern parts of the country, find the business-oriented but friendly approach of Gujarat's people soothing.

“If two cars accidentally hit each other in Ahmedabad, it is most likely that the drivers would just nod at each other and rush to deal with their respective businesses. Unlike drivers in Delhi, they won't go all out on the road and let the argument end up in blows. As a whole, an atmosphere of calm and peace prevails in Gujarat,” says Nilotpal Das Gupta, a Delhi-based journalist who frequently visited the state chasing stories on Tata Motors' Nano factory in Gujarat's Sanand.

After facing major protests over land acquisition in West Bengal's Singur, Tata Motors had decided to set up its Nano facility in Gujarat's Sanand in 2008. And it was able to build the factory in a record time of 14 months. Business-friendly policies of the state came handy when the company was facing a crisis situation.

Gujarat is mindful of the fact that being popular is not a one-time affair and one has to keep making efforts for betterment.