Property registrations at 27 offices in the city and Pimpri Chinchwad will be closed from Friday till further notice, as per an order issued by divisional commissioner Deepak Mhaisekar on Thursday under the Epidemic Act, 1897, implemented across the state to curb the spread of Covid-19.
Mhaisekar said the order was issued as a part of the social distancing strategy to check the spread of coronavirus. Online registrations for leave and licence agreements through the authorized service providers would continue.
Areas under the jurisdictions of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) register the maximum number of cases in the state. The order added that too much crowding was noticed in the property registration offices. Mhaisekar said the cap on the registrations would continue till further instructions from the government.
Officials said the property registration offices in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad usually witnessed a footfall of over 2,000 people at a given time.
Officials in the department of registration and stamps said the procedure be followed in accordance with the order in the corporation limits. However, there was no restriction on the property registration in the rural areas of the district as of now. As March ends, the footfall to the registration offices in the city areas increase. Each of these offices record over 40 registrations a day during this period of time.
Citizen activist Shrikant Joshi had approached the state government in the first week of March, seeking measures to check over-crowding at the property registration offices. “The recent order will be of much help, as the state government is insisting on social distancing measures,” he said.
Developers said the real estate sector was already going through a slowdown phase. They, however, said if needed, they would postpone the registration work to the next financial year. Joshi hoped that the state government did not increase the Ready Reckoner rates in the current situation and provided an extension to financial closure
