CHENNAI: If a piece of land is sold more than five times in Tamil Nadu, chances are that the encumbrance certificate (EC) for the land or the survey number may not reflect all the transactions.
The problem is because of a technical glitch in the ‘Tamil Nilam’ software used by the revenue department.
According to sources, the software could record only five transactions using alphanumeric (alphabets and numbers) codes and further transactions are recorded as sub-division of the land. In such cases, the EC of the survey number of the land will not reflect the correct transaction.
As several property owners are finding it difficult to get building plan approvals and bank loans for such properties because of the discrepancies in land records, the state government has proposed to constitute a taskforce to address the glitch and other issues, sources said. Because of the software issue, it has also become difficult for buyers to trace the transaction history of the property beyond 30 years, sources pointed out.
The state revenue department gets 1.5 lakh applications per year for patta transfers involving sub-division of plots. Currently, state government departments use two software applications for land transactions. While land records are maintained by the revenue department in a centralised database called ‘Tamil Nilam’, the registration department uses Star 3.0 software for registration of properties.
Currently, a mutation software is being used to carry out mutations of land parcels necessitated because of sale of asset, gift deeds, legal partition among heirs, or because of court orders. These applications are processed through the ‘Tamil Nilam’ software for issuing patta with or without sub-division of plots.
Registration department sources said work on integration of the two software (Tamil Nilam and Star) is on.
‘Consider farmers drought-hit, provide aid’
“Whenever there is a crisis due to failure of monsoon or lack of water in Mettur, the government used to advice farmers on going for short-term crops or taking up direct sowing. Direct sowing will reduce the cultivation cost significantly. But to ahead with direct sowing, the advice has to come from the state government,” he added.
Natarajan pointed out even during the kuruvai season, farmers in tail-end delta areas have gone for direct sowing. But since Mettur water did not reach these areas, crops on several acres were damaged, he said.
A farm activist from Thanjavur said, “Farmers are afraid of going for samba since kuruvai crop has failed in tail-end areas.
In several villages, kuruvai was not raised due to lack of water. These areas should be regarded as ‘drought-hit’ and compensation should be given. The government should assure that insurance coverage would be given for samba crop too, and extend unconditional loans to farmers for the next crop.”
KV Elankeeran, a farmer leader, said the government should give a special package for samba and tell farmers to go for short-term paddy crops to cope with the water shortage.
The government can give power connections to around 10,000 farmers in delta areas who use pumpsets for irrigation. P S Masilamani, general secretary of Tamil Nadu Vivasigal Sangam affiliated to CPI, said compensation for damaged kuruvai crops should be given immediately.
Samba sowing starts in Aug
Sowing for samba starts in August and the crop season extends for 145 days. Sowing of kuruvai paddy starts in June-July and harvest is completed within 120 days. Thaladi is the third major paddy crop season which is carried out in delta areas depending on water availability and may extend for 130 days
EC may fail to record correct transactions
Software could record only five transactions using alphanumeric codes and further transactions are recorded as sub-division of land. In such cases, the EC will not reflect the correct transaction. Buyers too can’t trace property transaction history beyond 30 years