Revenue department not keeping track of Telangana land

Hyderabad: The recent aerial survey by Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has brought to light the apathy of the revenue department in protecting costly government lands in the city.

It was found that the revenue department has no records or survey numbers of government lands, thereby making it easier for land- grabbers to encroach and register with stamps by creating fake documents.

Mr Rao, who undertook the aerial survey over Ranga Reddy, Mahbubnagar and Nalgonda districts along with the officials to identify government lands for industries, was shocked to find that there were no records available with the government to claim ownership for thousands of acres. The CM had examined the revenue records and found that encroachers could easily register such lands by creating fake documents and sold out to multiple buyers because the government had no proper records or survey numbers to claim ownership. The government is not even in a position to fight court cases against encroachers to reclaim lands on account of defective records. Mr Rao directed the officials to release a list of ‘banned lands’ with survey numbers in the city, where registrations cannot be done by anyone in future.

The revenue department has initiated the process to list the ‘banned lands’ with survey numbers, which will be circulated to the offices of sub-registrars in all the 10 districts of TS with clear-cut instructions that no registrations should be allowed or done of these lands. “Earlier, there was Section-22A, to check this menace. But, that was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2007. We have decided to come out with a list of banned lands now, where registrations should not be allowed henceforth,” said Mr Mohd Mahmood Ali, the Deputy CM and revenue minister.