Public forced to pay huge bribes for registrations

Srikakulam : ‘Pay double the amount on stamp duty for preparation of a document and registration of the same at the sub-registrar’s office (SRO)’, was the conversation between a person of Laveru mandal with a document writer at Ranastalam SRO recently. The person contacted the document writer for registration of sale deed. When the person questioned about why such huge amount is required, the document writer said that they have to satisfy SRO and staff of the office for quick registration of document otherwise they search and find mistakes and object registration. The value of the property for registration is around Rs 2.5 Lakh and its stamp duty which was to be paid to the government through bank is around Rs 18,500. But the document writer asked Rs 37,000 for registration of the sale deed. The person did not want to be named and expressed concern over the high amount.

This situation prevailed at Ranastalam SRO and other SROs across the district. Even the gov-ernment issued guidelines on prevention of entry of document writers into the SROs and also on movement of mediators and brokers at the said offices, but it is outrightly violated as the customers and stakeholders are depending on the writers, brokers and mediators.

Due to lack of cooperation from the customers and stakeholders, higher officials are unable to implement the government rules strictly. Even though the model formats are available in the stamps and registrations department website for various deeds and documents, customers and stakeholders are depending on the document writers, mediators and brokers for hassle-free completion of their work.

As a result, active involvement of document writers, mediators and brokers became common practice.

Taking advantage of innocence and lack of knowledge on the documents’ registration procedure among customers, document writers, mediators and brokers are playing key role and officials concerned collected high amount than stamp duty through these un-authorised persons to escape from legal liability.

When The Hans India contacted the Ranastalam SRO to get his version on the issue, he said that he is busy and disconnected the call.