Ranchi, April 10: Property dealings just got simpler. The Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) has started a single window system that promises to drastically slash the time taken to get mutations.

Now all you need to do is to walk into the single window counter at the right hand side of the main gate for mutation. The document will be in your hands in the matter of an hour.

You can also get details on house tax, sanitary tax, water tax, education tax and health cess. Information on payment schedule and the outstanding amount of a particular holding can be generated within a few seconds.

The computerised system has started working in ward no 3. Data entry work is going on in three other wards (ward number 1, 19 and 23) and the system will come into force there by April-end.

There are about 80,000 registered property holders in the capital, who stand to benefit from the system.

Since the system was introduced a few days ago, the counter has seen around 10 visitors every day. The system is being used to send quarterly bills to holders with details of the taxes.

Syed Tariq Alam, programmer with the information technology (IT) department, who is coordinating the computerisation work along with another programmer Ved Prakash, said the new system will reduce the workload of the RMC staff and provide residents a hassle-free service.

Alam said all the backlog entries of the wards have been incorporated in the system, adding, ?We have taken 1992 as the benchmark for entering the data.? The last assessment of property tax was done in 1992.

Added Alam, ?This will not only lessen the burden of the staff, but also reduce duplication. We have linked the entire office through a local intranet. There is also a file tracking system to help the administrator know where a particular file is stuck,? Alam said.

Earlier, to get a mutation one had to make several visits to around seven sections of the RMC to get the relevant details. Regular trips to the civic body for three or four days would be needed.

Mutations are needed in five cases: when a new asset is created, when property is divided, when a house changes hands as a gift, when it is inherited by someone, or when it is amalgamated.

Efforts are on to make all the information available on the Internet. ?We will be able to do it by next month. After this, one can even apply for mutation online. One can also apply for birth and death registration and get these certificates,? he added.

The RMC has also made a software for markets falling under the municipal area.

RMC administrator Sahshi Ranjan Kumar said, ?After testing for the three wards is complete, we will take up the job to enter data of all the 37 wards in the city. ?