In Himachal Pradesh, the powers of Sub-Registrar have been vested in Tehsildars and Naib Tehsildars. Hence, people coming from far flung areas and spending hours together on traveling should get as many services at a same time from a single trip. Since the computerization of land records is nearing completion in the entire State and e-governance related services including certificates of different kinds are offered there, it was considered necessary to introduce Property Registration Software also at these locations as it is inextricably linked with the computerization of land records. 

Problems

Another objective of computerization in this regard was to overcome the following problems being faced by the Department of Revenue and people:

1.  The process of registration used to take more time than actually required due to
     human interventions and some times vested interest. People who found it difficult
     to travel once to SRO office had to visit time and again for getting the 
     registration done.

2.  The people had to visit the Patwari for obtaining average rates of land in the area
     in which transaction proposed to take place and it was whims and fancies of the
     Patwari to provide the average rate or not. In many cases, even bribe was also
     taken from the public for giving average prices.

3.  The calculation of average land prices depended on the transactions taking place
     in that area. Sometimes, in order to favour some people for vested interests the 
     Patwaris used to remove the extreme value transactions. On one hand, low
     average value would cause loss to the State exchequer and high average value
     resulted in loss to the applicant.

4.  The quality of various services offered to the public was very poor and
     inordinately long time used to be taken in registering documents.

5.  There were leakages in the revenue to the government due to under-valuation of
     registration, stamp duties and surcharges.

6.  The approach in dealing with public was person oriented than procedure or system
     oriented and were maneuvered to benefit some at the cost of teasing other.

7.  There was no transparency in the system being followed.

8.  The rates of stamp duty, registrations and surcharges which are changed from time
     to time by the government were not properly charges from the public.  

Objectives of HimRis

These mentioned problems as well the need to take the benefits of ICT in this system, the government introduced the computerization with following objectives:

.   To provide timely an efficient services to the people in a transparent manner.

.   To better enforce the changes in to the system uniformly which are announced from time to time.

.   To tap the leakages in the revenue due to undervalue of the rates of stamp duty and registration.

.   Better services to the citizens by providing on the spot registration and single window service

.   Prevention of frauds like impersonation, professional witnesses & proxies by capturing of photographs of all the parties and the witnesses on the spot.

.   Better monitoring of revenue collection by plugging in the leakage of government revenue by proper and correct evaluation defined by administration based on current rates.

.   To introduce increased transparency in the system by removing all the discretion at all levels through automation on scrutiny, valuation, checking support certificates.

.   To replace the non-uniform, person-specific processes that followed tradition rather than the rule-book.

The HimRis (Himachal Registration Information System) software developed by NIC Himachal Pradesh is a workflow application and helps the Sub-Registrar Offices to undertake deed registration in an efficient, simple & speedy manner. HimRis is a self sustaining e-Governance project ensuring simple, uniform document registration process with a guarantee to return original document after registration & archival within same day.

 

Major Highlights of HimRis

HimRis software has following features or highlights:

1.   A work flow application necessitating the completion of first activity related to 
     registration before the next can start.

2.   Reduced registration time and on time delivery.

3.   Single Window, on spot registration.

4.   Usage of easily available, simple & latest technology

5.   Availability of Bilingual interface.

6.   Automated calculations of registration fee, stamp duty and surcharge etc.

7.   Roles and responsibilities of each official associated with registration are duly 
     taken care by the application.

8.   A generic codification related to each deed/sub-deed with the rates of stamp 
     duty, registration and other fees by the department takes away the burden of 
     calculation of stamp duty, registration fees and other surcharges.

9.  Automated options for Scanning of deeds and ensuring photographs of parties / 
     witness / identifier. The option of scanning in the software has done away the 
     need of taking second copy of Deed document from the public for which it has to 
     spend extra money.

10.  Only one visit to SRO office for getting the activities related to deed 
      registration.

11.  Only one copy of Deed Document would be required instead of two earlier.

12.  Return of incomplete documents with reasons.

13.  Printing of endorsement on separate pages.

14.  Generation of various MIS as well as query based reports.

15.  Three-tier security viz at OS, database and application level.  

 

Scope of HimRis