Government of West Bengal : CoRD

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Department of Stamps Registration is a critical part of the Finance Department of the WB State Government, which collects stamp duty and registration fees. This department is also responsible for maintaining records of registered documents.

Earlier the entire process of registration was done manually. The process was time consuming as it included tasks like maintenance of fee book register, determination of market value, writing endorsement details, etc. Also the department had to maintain these documents forever which required large quantities of paper as well as secure space. The department found this to be expensive and had a hard time in having complete control over these documents. The citizens were experiencing long delays when they needed to search an old document and they had to make repeated visits to the registration office. Since a registered document forms the legal basis for land property transfer, providing a copy of the document as demanded by the citizen is necessary for the office. Moreover it took months for the entire registration process to complete and citizens had to make multiple trips to the registration office.

To cope with all these demands and reduce the time required in registering the documents, the Department of Registration started the CoRD (Computerization of Registration of Document) project. The solution was created by NIC and implemented by CMS computers across 89 Sub-Registrar / District offices of West Bengal. The aim of the project was to complete the registration process within a day, if not within an hour. A Helpdesk system to provide advance information about market value, Registration fees, stamp duty and other fees payable for the registration of the property was created to bring transparency into the system. All information required to determine the market value and other fees related to the property sold was accumulated into the solution such as maps and road details of the area etc. This also reduced the inspectors visit to property land being sold to determine its market value.

B. C. Ghosh Dastidar, IGR Q What were the challenges and business problems that led to this project's implementation? The registration process is very time consuming if done manually. We were facing various problems like harassment to the public due to delay in service delivery and repeated visits to the office. Delay in search of the doc details, market value assessment, issuing certified copies, etc.; lack of transparency, accountability & objectivity; maintenance problems in storing large volume of docs in the physical form; poor ambience of the office, insufficient seating arrangement; wastage of time for citizens. Computerization addresses these issues very effectively and reduces the time taken substantially. It brings a sea change in the working of registration office. Public can expect to get their work done within a day, or even an hour. A help desk system for informing the market value of a property shall bring much needed transparency; both account maintenance and index building are automatic. Searching for detailed transaction of a particular plot or of transaction made by a particular person is computer driven ensuring speedy retrieval. Integration of CoRD with doc mgmt sw will facilitate quick archival, speedy retrieval of the doc for its consultation and issuance of certified copies. Q What were the key benefits gained after having deployed this project? Keeping in view of the vast scope for improving the quality and scope of services and achieving speed in service delivery, the following benefits are being observed instantly by the registrant public: Stamp Duty and other fees payable is made known to the intended beneficiary promptly and transparently. Easy Searching, inspection, copy of computerized registered-documents, Allows more time to the registration functionary to pay greater attention to the backoffice activities.

The project has also automated functional areas such as Generation of Query Number for determining the chargeability of Stamp Duty and Registration Fees of a deed before its construction by submitting the deed's information in a prescribed form. Generation of serial numbers and deed numbers to the document on first-cum-first-serve basis. Automatic generation of receipts in the prescribed forms after the fees has been received. Automatic generation of Endorsement pages, Signature Sheets for thumb impression and signature. For acquiring correct thumb expressions of the citizens, biometric fingerprint readers are deployed at the registration offices. The solution also does automatic generation of 'Certificate of Completion of Registration of Document' vis-à-vis back page of the document.

Data generated at each registration office across the state is pooled up in a central data centre for better mgmt, and adequately strong security and availability. Ideally, each office is supposed to transmit the day's data through West Bengal State Wide Area Network (WBSWAN). However currently WBSWN is only available at district level. Network's extension to block level s under implementation and is targeted to be completed by mid 2009. Till then each ADSR office sends text data on CD to the concerned DR periodically for its onward transmission to the central server.

Pilot for this project began on 5th September, 2003, with support from the Department of Information Technology (DIT), Government of India with Hooghly as the Pilot District. Later on the project was rolled out through a BOOT model. The project has been implemented in more than 160 registration offices of WB.

After project implementation there has been a significant improvement in the Service delivery, now citizens are able to receive final registered documents back on the same day which earlier used to take months. There has been considerable improvement in the increase of revenue as there is less scope for malpractices and this year the department expects its revenue to increase by 30%.

Implementation Partner

As a Private Partner CMS computers Limited was also responsible for Site Prepration, Civil and Electrical work at site, deploying and maintaining all hardware and network infrastructure of site and bear all operational as well as running and maintenance costs. Ramesh D. Grover CMD, CMS Shovan Giri Head e-Governance- Kolkata Region, CMS While implementing this project, one of the major challenges was user resistance. In remote areas where ICT penetration is low, employees opposed the new changes brought by the system, while others feared loss of Job. Another major challenge was availability of resources in remote areas. To deal with this challenge and problems faced, CMS Computers provided training to all employee of the registration office. They have also setup a helpdesk at every office which provides technical support to all the employees.

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