The DMK government on Monday announced the setting up of a special investigation team to probe and submit a report to the government.
The state government will also set up a high-level committee to restructure the guideline value for registration of sale deeds of properties to set right the discrepancies.
The guideline value saw a sharp hike in 2012 and subsequently, it was cut by 33% by the previous AIADMK regime.
Replying to the debate on demand for grants for commercial taxes and registration department, minister P Moorthy said there were continuous complaints from the public about the registration of fake documents, unrecognised plots and loss to the exchequer.
“Setting right the wrongs of the past and ensuring that no wrongdoings occur in the future is a big challenge for the registration department,” the minister said.
“We have come to know of instances of fraudulent registration by people impersonating landowners staying in other states and countries and those who passed away, creation of fake pattas, selling properties to more than one person, grabbing of properties citing missing documents and improper sharing of properties among siblings. Based on the report of the SIT, legal action will be initiated against the culprits,” Moorthy said. The initiative will cost the government 80 lakh this fiscal and 2.20 crore towards recurring expenditure.
The authorities have come upon cases of registration of wetland, government poromboke land, temple and Wakf board properties in the name of private individuals. The affected public faced difficulties with no avenues to cancel the documents and have been sending petitions to the government now. The state government has passed a Bill to amend The Registration Act, 1908, inserting provisions to empower the registrar to cancel the registration, and imposing penalty and three-year imprisonment for the officer who register through forged sale deeds. Moorthy said the public grievance redressal camps will be held on Mondays in zones by deputy inspector general and district registrar in every district.
The government will also take up delimitation of village panchayats and the revenue villages for the benefit of sub-registrar offices. Under ease of doing business, the government integrated the services of encumbrance certificate, certified copy of the document, registration of societies and registration of partnership firms with the ‘single window portal’ of the Guidance Bureau from July. Murthy said the government proposed online registration of documents relating to deposit of title deeds with banks and rental agreement for the benefit of investors.
