GUWAHATI, Feb 2: The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, Government of India, has selected the Computerization of Registration (Panjeeyan) Project in Assam for the prestigious Gold Icon in the National Awards for e–Governance 2012–13 for Excellence in Government Process Re–engineering.

The State–wide Computerization of Registration (Panjeeyan) Project in Assam has been implemented by Revenue and Disaster Management Department with active support of Finance Department, under the Asian Development Bank Assam Governance and Public Resource Management Project (AGPRMP).

The registration process carried out in sub–registrar offices is a means of recording documents like sale deed, mortgage, agreement, lease deed, power of attorney and will, as provided for in the Registration Act, 1908. It confers a legal status to the document and provides a measure of security to the transaction and minimizes scope of disputes. Further, significant government revenue in the form of stamp duties and registration fees have to be deposited in sub–registrar offices.

Under the computerization of Registration (Panjeeyan) Project, there are 75 sub–registrar offices across the State where the manual process has been replaced by computerized process.

Process re–engineering through application of Information Technology has now resulted in the delivery of original registered documents to public on the same day against the earlier period of 6–8 years, accurate assessment of all kinds of fees and stamp duty amount, digital preservation of biometrics inputed of parties involved in the process, scanning of documents instead of copying by hand, use of digital webcams in lieu of photographs taken beforehand, simplification of the procedures for obtaining certified copied of documents, non–encumbrance certificate and marriage certificate, enable introduction of e–stamp certificates in lieu of physical stamp paper. This has brought in a remarkable change in the citizens–services delivery and improved efficiency of the office due to elimination of need to manually create and then store physical registers and other records.