TS sits on `200cr for past two years

The 0.5 per cent registration fee that is collected when a property is registered should be transferred to the stamps and registration department to provide facilities for property sellers and buyers who visit registration offices.

Nearly `200 crore collected as registration fee is lying with the government for the past two years.

About 140 registration offices in the state lack basic facilities such as chairs, tables, drinking water, fans and toilets, and the public has to put up with the lack of amenities even as they wait for hours to complete property transactions.

The sub-registrar’s offices in the districts are housed in buildings that are so dilapidated that they make visitors jittery.

There are no help desks to assist people, forcing them to depend on brokers and private document writers to get their work done.

Soon after coming to power in 2014, the TRS government had announced that new buildings would be constructed for all subregistrar offices, with modern amenities. It was decided to set up help desks in all offices to rid people of the necessity of hiring brokers.

Tenders had also been prepared, but three years on, the proposal remains on paper.

Employees of the stamps and registration department argue that had the government released the `200 crore it owes in registration fees, all these basic amenities could have been provided to people the public that frequent the department.