PUNE: Leave and licence registrations have been severely impacted in the state since Tuesday because of a technical glitch in the Aadhaar verification system.
The issue has affected e-registration of property documents from developers’ offices as well. The breakdown in online services since August 6 has led to a significant increase in footfall at sub-registrar offices across the state, a registration department official said.
“The system fault has occurred with the Directorate of Information Technology, and this keeps on happening several times, disrupting an important public service. Aadhaar verification is very important for seamless e-registration,” a senior property registration official told TOI on Friday.
State director of IT Nima Arora said that her team is actively working on resolving the technical glitch within two days. She said that the snag occurred due to a load on the system. “Many departments use the Aadhaar services, so there is heavy load on the server, and we are working on catering to all departments,” she said.
This widespread disruption has forced many to revert to the older, more cumbersome system of registration, which requires bringing two witnesses for verification, a practice that was phased out with the introduction of Aadhaar-based e-registration.
Sachin Singhavi, president, Association of Real Estate Agents, said that these frequent disruptions affect rental registrations in the state. “We have knocked on the doors of the registration department and the chief minister’s office for resolving the issue. Around 6,500 leave and licence registrations take place in the state daily. The process has been disrupted since August 6, leading to long queues at registration offices,” he said. Earlier, the website had faced issues and now with the Aadhaar services facing technical glitches, leave and licence agreements have been affected.
With e-registrations in key cities such as Pune, Thane, Mumbai, and Nagpur yielding a revenue of Rs 6-8 lakh monthly, it becomes a major problem if the service is disrupted for a few days.
Mita Mohit, who was trying to register her leave and licence agreement online on August 6, said she could not register due to the technical problem. “If the system doesn’t work, I will have no option but to visit the registration office, which will be such a waste of time,” she said.
Builders, who normally carry out e-registrations of the first sale of projects from their offices, said that disruption in online services has affected them greatly.
Former Credai state president and governing council member (national) Shantilal Kataria said that the Centre and state should streamline the services to ensure that developers do not face such issues. “Once a facility is provided, there is a need to focus and ensure that it is seamless,” he said. Kataria said that many developers carry out registrations from their own offices for the first sale of projects. Around 100 registrations take place from builders’ offices across the state.