Curation Team
PUNE: Persistent glitches have marred the performance of the state’s new online deemed conveyance portal Pratyay MahaBhumi, launched by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis in May to digitise the process for housing societies, forcing many back to the deputy registrar’s office.
Many societies of Pune and Mumbai have complained to the cooperation department about the inability to log in or proceed with applications. While some registrations did go through, housing federation members said the system never really took off. It failed to deliver on the promise of eliminating in-person visits.
Committee member of a Hadapsar society Prashant Joshi said, “We tried and failed to log in. Our society is waiting for a deemed conveyance for over 10 years. The system was supposed to save us repeated trips to govt offices.”
Officials admitted the portal was not functioning as intended. “We are aware of a technical glitch and are working to resolve it. Services will resume shortly,” a senior cooperation department official said after a review meeting on Monday.
The portal was designed to handle every stage of the deemed conveyance process — from document upload and scrutiny to hearing schedules and final orders — online, with a six-month deadline for completion.
The state has 1.3 lakh registered housing societies and 78,116 (62%) lack deemed conveyance, leaving them without legal ownership of the land they stand on. Such societies remain dependent on builders or original landowners and it hampers redevelopment, major repairs and access to loans or development rights.
Housing federations have also demanded that the eight required documents be reduced to five or six for simplification of the process. The deemed conveyance provision was introduced in 2008 and rules notified in 2010, but uptake has remained low because of cumbersome procedures. Many societies either never initiated the process or abandoned it midway.
