Even as the 80-foot-road project is hanging fire owing to the delay in acquisition of a small stretch for confusion over its title deed, the Anantapur Municipal Corporation (AMC) has found glaring irregularities in ascertaining the land value, an exercise undertaken to work out the compensation to those who have parted with their land.
The AMC has found that the value fixed for some land was doubled than what was fixed in 2017 and the process of identifying the genuine owners is still in progress.
On September 27, 2017, Anantapur RDO enumerated the value of land in Survey No.179/1 as ₹17,000 per square yard and the AMC estimated the total compensation value to be ₹ 9.63 crore. Anantapur Sub-registrar fixed the land value after the Collector approved the draft preliminary notification on December 13, 2017.
Final award
However, when the final award on the land value was issued on May 31, 2019, by the RDO, he considered the land value as ₹33,000 per square yard as indicated by the Sub-registrar.
Later, the price was reduced by ₹3,000 per square yard following an inspection of then Joint Collector. With the revised value, the total compensation value went up to ₹17 crore when compared to the initial estimate of ₹9.63 crore.
The RDO while issuing the final award allegedly did not take the signature of the Joint Collector or the Collector as required.
Recently, Municipal Commissioner P.V.V. Murthy, on a closer look at the final award, reportedly found some contradictions in the land value and the procedure adopted while ascertaining it.
‘Report sent to Collector’
Sources say a report in this regard has been sent to the Collector. Joint Collector too found lapses and the government has been informed about it, they say.
In the final award, the RDO claimed that the values of the nearby land were considered while finalising the transaction value, but the details revealed that the market value of apartment buildings all over the city (4,539 sale deeds) was taken into account during the exercise.
Section 26 of the A.P. Land Acquisition Act mandates that values of the land in the vicinity need to be considered while finalising the transaction rate.
The land in question is in Anantapur rural village, but the sale prices of apartment complexes in the urban area were shown as the land value (₹33,000 per square yard) in the records, sources say.
The Door No.17/280 in the Survey No. 2093 mentioned by the Sub-registrar as the base for ascertaining the land value is located in Neeruganti Street in the Old Town. The compensation value was allegedly calculated for a land in the Survey No. 179/1 in Venugopal Nagar, by categorising it as the Anantapur rural village.
“The present value of the land in the Door Nos. 18-1-439-1 or 17-922-44 close to the land in question is only ₹18,000 per square yard,” the sources add.
