To check illegal mutation of property

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has requested the Centre for Good Governance (CGG) to take up digitisation of property ownership records prior to June 2016 and complete the process within the next few days.

GHMC Commissioner B. Janardhan Reddy announced the decision after a meeting with top officials following the unearthing of illegal mutation of property done in connivance with two outsourcing employees of the municipal corporation.

With the online link up with Registration Department, there was a constant stream of information about registered properties to various circle offices from last year, he said and added that the records before June 2016 were all manual and hence they were prone to tampering.

But once the ‘mock binding’ or digitisation of property records is done, it would be easy to identify from which computer the mutation is done.

He also wanted steps to be taken to ensure that municipal records were not accessed from outside, but from within the intranet system.

Removal from service

Earlier, he ordered the removal of B. Polaiah and M. Lakhan Singh from service, both data entry operators, for illegally changing the name of the owner of a property online without any back-up documents in connivance with one K. Koteshwara Rao.

The trio changed the name of D. Rama Bai, a property owner and a resident of Banjara Hills, in favour of Mr. Rao. It came to light when she went to pay advance property tax for the year and was shocked to see the owner name changed in the records.

Ms. Bai had purchased the property (H. No. 8-2- 609/17/M, Gourishanker Colony, Road No. 11, Banjara Hills) from Mr. Rao in 2015, got it registered and the property was also mutated in the municipal records the same year. Based on her complaint, Dr. Reddy ordered an inquiry.

With the help of CGG, the IP address was ascertained through which the role the trio was established and cases against them registered at Banjara Hills police station.