NEW DELHI: The Centre has urged states to identify and track properties belonging to nearly 2.1 lakh companies which have been struck off by the government. Minister of state for law, justice and corporate affairs P P Chaudhary told state government representatives on Thursday that the process of identification of such properties needs to be completed at the earliest and information be shared with the corporate affairs ministry in a time-bound manner.The minister was speaking at a meeting to discuss follow-up action by states on properties belonging to companies struck off from the registrar of companies by the Centre under provisions of the Companies Act Chaudhary expressed confidence that since land records had been computerised across the country , it would not take much time for the states to provide details to the district authorities as well as to the Centre.The minister told the state representatives that after the names of these companies were struck off from the registrar of companies, any transaction linked to properties owned by the directors or authorised signatories on behalf of these firms, would be void till they are restored by the NCLT By virtue of the company's name being struck-off, the legal ownership of properties belonging to such a company was non-existent, the minister informed the states, according to an official statement.Chaudhary said it was the duty of the district administration to prevent any transaction of such properties and exercise due diligence based on the information shared by the corporate affairs ministry .He urged them to ensure that district authorities dealing with registration of properties to put appropriate mechanism in place to prevent transactions in properties belonging to companies whose names have been scrapped. The minister also said disciplinary action be taken against officials who allow registration of such properties.Chaudhary emphasised that tackling the menace of shell companies is an imperative element of the government's fight against black money . He said such a fight against corruption was meant to be a multi-pronged one and it was necessary for all stakeholders, including the states, to play their role.