BADIN, Feb 18: A large number of rain-it growers have expressed anguish over delay in delivery of their property documents from the Hyderabad-based microfilming section of the Board of Revenue (BoR).

Many documents, including urgent and ordinary deeds, submitted by the sub-registrars for getting them microfilmed, have not been returned within the stipulated time.

Talking to this reporter, rain-hit growers Ghulam Mohammad, Muhammad Khan and Shahnawaz said that they were being denied free of cost wheat seed and fertiliser due to absence of registered documents. The agricultural inputs were being given only to those who produced registered documents, they added.

According to a sub-registrar of Badin town, documents registered after payment of urgent fees were usually returned in 15 days while ordinary ones were to be handed over in one or two months' time.

However, urgent documents were being delayed for 45 days and the ordinary ones were being returned after lapse of ten to 12 months.

But microfilming of documents, a BoR official said, was being delayed as only one out of three machines was functioning. Two machines had been lying out of order for last couple of months because of minor faults, he added.

Meanwhile, hundreds of the documents submitted in the office of sub-registrars for registration purpose, are pending for want of verification of sale certificates and NOCs from the assistant commissioners (revenue) of the district.

It is mandatory for a sub-registrar to get a verification letter from the AC concerned prior to finalisation of a registration process of a document.

According to bond writers, the delay in registration of the deeds has been creating troubles for purchasers who have paid reasonable amounts to sellers at the time of putting the final signature to documents before sub-registrars.

The assistant commissioners of Badin, Tando Bago and Matli have simplified the verification procedure and directed the Mukhtiarkars not to hand over sale certificates and NOCs to the concerned persons prior to verification of the sale certificates from them.

However, the assistant commissioner of Talhar is not prepared to do the same.

When contacted, assistant commissioner of Talhar, however, maintained that the Mukhtiarkar's office was causing the delay in verification of documents.