Lease at ease: State to ramp up online service centre network

In what will make it easier for people to register their leave and licence agreements without standing in serpentine queues at registration offices, the department of registration and stamps will ramp up access to the e-registration facility through the statewide network of citizens service centres (CSCs).  The department has already rolled out the e-registration facility wherein people can complete the registration process and make payments online. However, the parties to the documents and their identifiers must have UIDAI cards for biometric verification, to add a layer of security to the process and reduce chances of frauds. Leave and licence agreements in cities like Mumbai, which have prohibitively high real estate prices, account for around 35% of volumes in terms of documents registered, but the share of revenue collected is less considering the low stamp duty value compared to sale and purchase deeds. Apart from reducing foot falls and queues at registration offices, the initiative will ensure transparency, faster work and reduce human interference. "Pilot testing is underway, we will enable universal access soon," Dr Shrikar Pardeshi, Inspector General of Registration and Controller of Stamps, told dna, adding that they had managed to register around 100 documents so far on a "test basis". He added that they were planning to begin the online registration in the CSCs and were working out modalities regarding integration, payment gateway, cost sharing and training. The CSCs are a term used to describe the around 6,000 functional Maha e-Seva centres, 350 Setu centres in district collector and tehsil offices and about 25,000 Sangram centres in gram panchayat offices. "We will take around one to two months to make it accessible through these contact points," said Pardeshi, adding that otherwise a large number of individuals may not have access to web cameras and biometric devices (thumbprint scanners) which are needed for the online registration. The online module allows people to automatically calculate their stamp duty and registration charges, prepare, modify and view the draft agreement before it is executed and submitted for registration. The stamp duty and registration fee should be paid online through Government Receipt Accounting System (GRAS). The department will then register the document and send it back to the parties electronically. "This is a citizens friendly initiative, which we are planning to expand," said Rajesh Aggarwal, principal secretary of the state IT department, who is involved in the exercise. He added that reducing the footfalls for leave and licence registration in the government offices would work to the advantage of both, the government and the people. Dhaval Kulkarni DNA-Daily News & Analysis  Copyright restricted. Under License from www.dnasyndication.com Please visit www.anulom.com or mail us to contactus@anulom.com to avail our doorstep service for e registration.Anulom has its own user friendly mobile based app to gather owner ,tenant and terms details.Use it once to get the feel how easy it is ! Happy renting !!