Land deals sealed in a ‘real’ hurry

As the news about the possible upward revision of the registration and land prices gained momentum, the Stamps and Registration Department’s offices in Krishna and Guntur district witnessed a flurry of activity on Thursday with buyers and sellers making a beeline to complete their transactions ahead of the revision.

The activity, which started on a steady note in Krishna district, reached such a stage that one of the main servers hosting the transaction details was down for some time, thanks to the rush of documents. The registration offices in Guntur district witnessed unprecedented rush since past couple of days with over 2,000 transactions registered on Wednesday alone.

The offices in the region had teemed with land owners, buyers, witnesses and document writers to complete the land registration transactions. Out of the 28 sub-registrar offices in Krishna district, offices at Gandhinagar, Patamata, Gunadala, Kanchikacherla, Gannavaram, Nuzvid and Ibrahimpatnam witnessed heavy rush.

The steep rise in transactions was due to the State government’s original proposal to increase the market value of lands by 30 per cent from August 1.

Fearing that they have to shell out more if the market value is enhanced, most property buyers made a beeline for the registration offices along with buyers and sellers, and completed transactions. But later in the day, the Deputy Chief Minister, K. E. Krishnamurthy, denied that there was a proposal to hike the charges.

‘Speculation to blame’

Retired Registrar G. Pullaiah attributed the rise in transactions to panic buying and selling after the State government’s move. Speculations over making the new capital between Vijayawada and Guntur have also contributed to the increase in registrations.

Another factor that led to this situation was ongoing ‘Sravana masam’ which is considered auspicious. Officials said the quantum of revenue that was generated through these transactions would be known only after a couple of days as the payments were made through challans. “We will get complete details about the total revenue generated, by Saturday,” said Vijayawada (West) In-charge Registrar G. Srinivasa Rao.

Guntur District Registrar S. Balaswamy said there was no official information on hike in property or registration charges so far. “But, we have seen the activity slowing down since Thursday afternoon,” he said. The slowdown was largely attributed to the repeat telecast in the news channels about Chief Minster N. Chandrababu Naidu’s decision to turn down the request of the Revenue Department to hike the charges.