At a time when ways to reduce bureaucratic hurdles are being debated across the country, the state government has planned to remove one crucial layer in registration of properties.

From now on, registration of property sale deeds will not require no-objection certificate from the local civic authority. Builders had been complaining that such NOCs delayed land deals and were tainted by corruption. This system had caused a major hurdle to the realty sector across the state.

The move is likely to revive the struggling realty sector in the state and also curb corruption in the civic departments, said a government official. “Many transactions were getting delayed in the already sluggish market because municipal authorities were able to delay sale deeds. In many cases, local officers would ask for bribe to give NOC,” said spokesperson of a leading real estate firm.

So far, the buyers or sellers were supposed to get NOC from the civic body or the department of town and country planning (DTCP) as no sale deed could be registered without this approval. This has led to the delay in the registration of residential and commercial properties and caused a great inconvenience to the buyers. Moreover, the officials caused deliberate delays to clear the files unless they were paid the bribe, this led to a lot of social tension and the government had received a plethora of complaints against the corrupt civic officials who were netted by the anti-corruption bureau sleuths from time to time.

Further the state government is forming a subcommittee to ascertain the possibilities of amending rules related to medium and small townships where too the resident will not have to seek permission from the municipality authorities to repair, rebuild or buy a new home. “The panel will submit its recommendations to the government in the due course of time so that the necessary action could be taken”, said the official.