Property Allottees Bear Significant Costs Due To Glitch at Chandigarh Estate Office

                Chandigarh: A critical error by the UT estate office has resulted in significant consequences for property owners. Numerous allottees are facing difficulties in removing their properties 
from the ‘resumed' category. The incorrect tagging of properties during the digitalisation of records has created substantial challenges, with owners spending years attempting to 
correct these errors.
A Sector 35 resident, who wished to remain unnamed, said, "After the death of my father, when we decided to transfer the property from my father's name to the children, we 
discovered that the property was being shown as resumed in the online records of the estate office." This occurred in early 2023. "After we contacted the estate office, it took them 
nearly four months to acknowledge that the property was mistakenly shown as resumed. The data of a resumed property in a different sector was uploaded in the name of my father. 
Now it is January 2024, but the information is yet to be rectified as our file is still being processed. We can pursue the process of property transfer only after the information is 
corrected."
A Sector 22 property owner dealing with similar record corrections noted, "People are not aware of the process to get information corrected. They are at the mercy of the officials for 
getting this job done. The digitisation process, which was to bring relief to allottees in dealing with the estate office, has in fact created more problems for the residents."
Kamal Gupta, president, Property Consultant Association Chandigarh, said, "This ‘glitch' in the digital records of the estate office is a major source of harassment for the city residents. 
It takes a year or even more for the record to be rectified. There are multiple levels through which an allottee file has to pass, including a committee of officials, before it reaches the 
desk of the estate officer, and only then does the record get corrected."

Gupta says a bigger concern is that many allottees are oblivious to the fact that their properties are ‘resumed' in the estate office records. "Only a few check the online estate office 
records, generally when they want to pursue the transfer of property. What happens, say several years down the line, if the hard copies of the records are not available? What will the 
estate office and allottees do then? The estate office must address the problem."
Genesis Of The Problem
An official explained, "Around a decade ago, when the work on computerisation started in the estate office, mistakes were made in making online entries in the new software about 
property records. Instead of a single entry, double entries were made. In many instances, even though a property was not resumed, it was shown as a resumed property. The tagging 
occurred in hundreds of commercial and residential properties."
The situation's severity became apparent when over 250 cases emerged during grievance camps held in December 2023. Despite instructions for developing standard operating 
procedure (SOP) for resolving the issue promptly, corrections remain time-consuming. Gupta says, "Only the 200 odd cases that were highlighted during the camp were promptly 
resolved, but for most others, it is still a long-drawn process."
Official Response
Nishant Kumar Yadav, deputy commissioner-cum-estate officer, said, "We will hold special camps for speeding up the process of rectifying such data. We will also examine the 
process to rectify the data at our own end so that the allottees don't face any delay or harassment."


Source : Times of India