Lack of transparency surrounding land deals in the state will soon be a thing of the past with the Rajasthan government all set to introduce a Guaranteed Land Title Act. The new law will be initially made applicable in 11 cities of the state with the state capital itself introducing it as a pilot project.

The draft of the bill has already been prepared and is currently with the law department. After the draft is cleared, an Ordinance will be issued later this month, just in time to avoid the code of conduct which will come into force sometime next month.

The introduction of the Act for granting land titles is part of reforms that states have to undertake as part of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM ). Besides, it was also one of the promises in the budget speech of chief minister Vasundhara Raje.

An official said, “Till now, most real estate dealings have been done on lease hold lands as the concept of free-hold land was absent. This means that parties were given lease of the plot by the government on which they built their property and even after they sold this property, the land title stayed with the government and no mutation could be done”.

The only way an owner of a property could establish his claim on it was by getting his name incorporated in the receipt of the property tax that he pays every month or through the sale deed. But once the Act comes into being, provisions will be made where the title of a land can be changed to that of the new buyer giving him permanent ownership of it.

Initially, it will be optional for the old allottees of land to go in for the guaranteed land title but it will be made compulsory for all future projects. The land title would be made applicable on all the properties of JDA, Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) and Rajasthan State Industrial Development and Investment Corporation Limited, the official added.

Through the Act, the Jaipur Development Authority (JDA) would also be guarantying land titles when a property changes hand. In the event of a dispute, where a buyer gets cheated by the seller, JDA will be giving full compensation to buyer. However, initially, only provisional titles would be given, but after two-year tenure, permanent tiles would be issued.

The official added, “In places like Delhi, the initial response for going in for a certification that would guarantee land title to the buyer was poor. But as people understood its advantages, more and more of them now prefer to deal only in those plots that guarantees a title. We hope that even here it would be the same. However, owners wanting to get a JDA certification for his property would have to pay a sum for the same as before issuance of a certification, lots of exercises have to be done by the JDA”.