state government – The Metrognome

Want registered house documents for free?

If you’ve purchased or rented a house, you can get the registered documents online, free of cost for a week.

by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

The State Government made a new Internet facility operational since yesterday – using the site igrmaharashtra.gov.in, you can now download registered property documents without having to depend on your real estate broker to deliver the same to you, or stand in line at the local registration office. However, you can download these documents free of cost for just a week – thereafter, you will be charged a lumpsum amount for the entire document.

The website is part of the Government’s e-initiative to shift the process of property registration in Maharashtra, online. At present, the website is operational on a pilot basis in 14 of Mumbai’s 23 registration offices. The Government plans to extend the service to all centres in Maharashtra soon. Documents for transactions made between the years 2002 and 2011 are available for download.

To access the site and get your registered agreement, you must know such details as the CTS Number, village name, the document number, etc. Downloading of the document takes about 30 minutes. However, the site is not very user-friendly: for instance, a first-time user would not know that he/she needs to look for the ‘eSearch’ field on the left of the home page to begin looking for the registered document, in the first place. Besides, not many users would be stumped by the transaction not progressing beyond the ‘Property details’ page, since users have to enter only the first three letters of the ‘village’ that the registered property falls under.

In the near future, Maharashtra State could also be the first in the country to roll out a process where registrations of rental properties could take place online, followed shortly by other property deals. The State is also mulling a model where registration personnel could be called home for the process.

(Picture courtesy hindubusinessline.com)

Ajit Pawar returns?

Two months ago, Ajit Pawar resigned as the State’s Deputy Chief Minister after allegations of corruption. Is he returning soon?

by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

A series of scams and financial irregularities committed by the State in irrigation led to the September 25 resignation of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. Yesterday, a white paper on irrigation was placed before the State Government, and it does not mention any of the irregularities committed by the Water Resources Department, that was headed by Pawar. With just days to go before the Winter Session of the State Legislature takes place in Nagpur, the big question is:

Is Ajit Pawar coming back?

Pawar, who belongs to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and is nephew to NCP chief Sharad Pawar, is said to be desperate for a comeback, but the Government will have to play its cards right, especially with the Session coming up on December 11. There were talks in the NCP camp of Pawar’s comeback even before the white paper meeting took place last evening. It is also doubly suspicious that the white paper seemingly skirts all issues of corruption and merely lists the projects approved by the State in the last decade. The fact – and this was what made Pawar resign this year – that as much as Rs 35,000 crore has reportedly been siphoned off by the politician-contractor nexus in dud irrigation projects in the last 10 years, finds not the remotest mention in the white paper.

The NCP is reportedly already proclaiming that the reentry of Ajit Pawar into the State’s politics, in an official capacity, is only a matter of time, and that the timing would be decided by Sharad Pawar. However, any haste in the matter will reflect badly on the Government, say observers.

With a very ‘white’ white paper presented, and which glosses over any wrongdoing on the part of politicians and State bureaucrats, it seems that the entire exercise will only serve to bring Aijt Pawar back.

(Picture courtesy hindustantimes.com)