The Telangana government will enact a legislation against land grabbing after completing the regularisation of government lands that have been illegally occupied by people.
Deputy Chief Minister and Revenue Minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali told the Assembly in response to a question that the government had so far not regularised land in favour of any of the applicants as their requests were still being scrutinised. An all-party meeting will be convened ahead of the process.
He said the government had received 3.36 lakh applications to regularise 5,969 acres of land enjoyed by people with holdings less than 125 sq yds, for which no fee was payable.
The government received Rs. 133 crore as 10 per cent of registration value from 29,281 applicants holding more than 125 sq yds in respect of 701 acres. The land in court litigation or that which has been put to commercial use will not be regularised. The Minister added that the objective was not to harass people but facilitate better use of land. He admitted that the land values in Hyderabad were high, which had resulted in higher registration fee.
Congress legislator T. Jeevan Reddy said the policy was a shelter to land encroachers who kept their holdings vacant without taking up constructions. His party colleague, Puvvada Ajay Kumar, said the scheme was a failure because the present registration value was considered, which was too high.
BJP MLA N.V.S.S. Prabhakar said people who purchased urban ceiling lands in Uppal constituency represented by him paid Rs. 8 to 10 lakh per plot of 250 sq yds as registration fee.
