Land scams aided by ex-state players

Hyderabad: The Chief Commissionerate of Land Administration and the revenue task force committee have identified several ex-revenue staff who helped land grabbers take over government land.

A source in the CCLA said that the former employees, ranging from village revenue officers to tahsildars among others, knew the rules and and how to bend them. Some of them were trapped by the Anti Corruption Bureau and identified as the prime culprits behind the encroachments.

Officials found that the former employees were involved in the encroachment of 4,000 acre of land in Hyderabad district and nearby areas in Ranga Reddy district.

“Their role came to light after an investigation done by revenue officials. The culprits told the encroachers of the loopholes in the laws and assisted them in approaching the courts,” the source said. He said nearly 900 cases were pending in courts.

The revenue task force committee headed by former IAS officer S.K. Sinha had highlighted the role of ex-employees in its five reports submitted last year.
The committee recommended stringent and criminal action against Tellapur ex-sarpanch Lingala Kistaiah and a mandal revenue officer for encroachment of 249.38 acre of government land.

“The encroachers purchased 76.39 acre of patta land abutting government land and encroached upon a parcel of 249.38 acres of government land,” the committee said in its report. The committee recommended taking action against four persons including an ex-tahsildar and revenue staff for facilitating the encroachment of Bhoodan lands by misplacing important documents from the tahsildar’s office.

Now, the committee is focusing on encroachments in Serilingampally mandal in Ranga Reddy district. In its preliminary inquiry, it said most of the government land in prime localities adjacent to IT companies had been encroached. It said 20 acres was encroached in Survey No. 66/2 at Raidurgam where land costs between Rs 14 crore and Rs 15 crore per acre.

Hi-tech plan in offing

The Chief Commissionerate of Land Administration is adopting technology to stop land encroachments and prevent records being ‘misplaced’ with the aid of erring revenue staff.

The CCLA will provide nearly 7,000 Acer tabs to revenue staff from the village revenue officer to revenue divisional officer level along with bio-metric authentication to upload land details with maps apart from other requirements.
CCLA J. Raymond Peter said the staff must provide biometric authentication to upload verified land records on to the newly launched Maa Bhoomi web portal.

“The records uploaded on to the portal will have approval and authentication from the VRO to RDO and other higher officials. If anyone changes names or modifies records, an SMS alert will be sent to the officials and land owners,” he said. Mr Peter said, “Every registration detail will come to the notice of the tahsildar.”