The Bharatiya Bikash Parishad, which leads an anti-corruption movement in Ganjam district led by its State president Surendra Panigrahi held a Press meet here on Wednesday against the reported circular of the district Collector to all Sub-Registrars of the district not to allow the registration of any immovable property, be it land or house, without submission of Record of Right (RoR) of the property.

Panigrahi expressed serious concern over the recent circular.

Panigrahi said that the circular issued by the Ganjam Collector on 1.11.2019 not only violates Sub-Section-2 of Sec.22-A of the Registration Amendment Act 2013 of Odisha, but also the the verdicts passed by the Orissa High Court vide Writ Petition WPC No.9997/2014 ( Petitioner Dhabal Prasad Pradhan vrs. State of Odisha) .

The Parishad described the DM’s circular as “Kongaru” circular which is discriminatory and unilateral applicable only for Ganjam district which violates the principles of equality.

It may be recalled here that, the district administration reportedly had convened a meeting on October 14, 2019 on implementation of ORERA Act and Rules on registration of immovable properties in the district in which the builders, realtors and deed writers and Sub-Registrars of the district were present.  The district administration then had made clear in that meeting to strictly adhere to the provisions of ORERA Act and Rules pertaining to the registration of immovable properties. As a result, the Brahmapur Builders’ Association, the Deed Writers’ Association and the Legal Cell jointly earlier had also alleged that consequent upon the said circular, the Sub-Registrars of the district were not accepting the document presented before them for registration of immovable property without the presence of RoR, causing inconvenience and loss to the public.

The Government has spent Rs 800 crore from its exchequer for purchasing and developing advanced software to develop a most comprehensive database of land records and for smooth and timely issue of RoRs to the public in least possible time, but in vain, Panigrahi charged. He said that, the Government takes one year to one and a half years time to issue the RoR to the owners/public, instead of one week or one month. If a RoR is not issued to the public within a week time or so, then what is the use of the software,  he questioned.