Gujarat Properties All Set To Get Property Card Compulsorily

In order to make property cards compulsory for more than 1.25 crore properties in Gujarat’s urban areas, the state government had made mandatory plans which will be followed by the state's eight municipal corporations and all its municipalities.

Reports are that only 20 percent of the total property holders of Gujarat own a property card. The card is a formal document to note that the holder of the card has ownership title for a property. Normally, a property card is issued to a property owner by local authorities in urban areas. Contrarily, for rural areas, Record of Right or RoR, commonly known as 7/12 extract is issued as a document to ascertain property title to the owner.

According to EXIN Times sources, distribution of property cards for each property in Gujarat came to a cease due to lack of manpower and other issues regarding authorization. Therefore, in order to issue property card, in both urban and rural areas, a drive by the Gujarat state government is about to start. Reports are that the drive will target the urban areas of the state first, gradually moving to suburbs and then to villages.

An official from the state revenue office Gujarat has said that the 7/12 extract was formed to certify agricultural lands. However, for several official reasons, the 7/12 extract, along with index 6 are forced to use in even in cities.

Despite the government making property cards mandatory as the RoR in urban areas, for various reasons, in practice the 7/12 extract is still used, which is actually meant for agricultural land only. “To prevent property-related fraud and to give people authentic title to urban properties, property cards are necessary. The government has decided to launch a massive drive to issue around 1.05 crore property cards in urban areas, including ‘urban outgrowth areas’”, said another official from the department.

Reports are that before making the property card mandatory, the state revenue department will initiate a verification of properties. Also, the card will be made in smartcard format, but a paper format is likely to coexist. Another plan of the department to include in the campaign is to put photograph and maps of each property in each card.