the goan I network
MAPUSA
Overruling the objections raised by advocates’ body, the State government has decided to continue with the online registration of deeds and documents at the sub-registrars in North Goa, but sought one month’s time to put the cumbersome system in place.
“We had a lengthy discussion with Law Minister Nilesh Cabral about the tedious and user-unfriendly online registration process of deeds. The minister who gave us a patient hearing has sought one month’s time to iron out all the issues we raised,” said Adv Jerry Santamaria, secretary of North Goa District Advocates’ Association (NGDAA).
The NGDAA headed by Adv Nelson Soares along with the advocates’ forum presidents of Panaji, Mapusa, Bicholim, Ponda and Pernem met the Law Minister in his chamber at the Secretariat and presented a memorandum to him
on Friday.
State Registrar Ashutosh Apte was also present at the meeting.
The NGDAA secretary said the law minister admitted there were some technical problems with the process but assured to fine tune the system within a month.
“The focus of the law minister is to make the department corruption-free and the effort to introduce the system of online registration and even making online payments was with that aim in mind,” Adv Santamaria said.
He said the law minister went out of his way and asked all the advocates to SMS him if they had any issues over the issue. “The advocates are not opposed to the plan but we were concerned that system was creating problems and making things difficult for the common man,” Adv Santamaria said.
In its memorandum, the NGDAA urged the law minister to discontinue the online registration of deeds and documents at various sub-registrar offices in the North Goa and reintroduce the earlier system of registration till the time all the hitches and technical difficulties were addressed and the system is simplified and made user-friendly.
“The online registration process is completely inconvenient, user unfriendly, tedious, has functional defects and is not a proper substitute to the earlier physical registration process,” said Adv Nelson Soares, President of NGDAA.
“The online system has been implemented without consulting the stakeholders concerned, more importantly the advocates who are directly connected with the entire process of not only drafting of the deeds and documents but also with the registration process,” he added.
The NGDAA said it was not opposed to the digital India campaign but expected a better professional approach in introducing new concepts.
“We too support the Digital India Campaign, however, digitisation cannot be implemented overnight, haphazardly and without a pre-consultative process,” the memorandum said.
From the long delays to security of the site, the memorandum listed a series of glitches that made the online registration process cumbersome and faulty.
Keep online registration on hold, says South Goa advocates panel
MAPUSA: The South Goa District Advocates’ Association (SGDAA) has made a representation to the government to keep the online registration in Margao on hold until connectivity and other teething issues were resolved.
“We have made a representation to the law minister and the state registrar not to implement the online registration in Margao because we have got complaints from Cancacona that no deeds have been signed for the last 15 days as there is no connectivity in the office and the staff is also not trained,” said Adv Antonio Clovis, President of SGDAA.
Adv Clovis said they were planning to meet the law minister early next week as the government had plans to introduce it in Margao from January 23.
“We are not opposing the online registration. Train the staff, have proper connectivity and give a demonstration to public and lawyers how it functions so that we can give suggestions how to improve it,” he said.
