Telangana to Introduce Tough Land Grabbing Law

The state Cabinet meeting on October 23 is likely to discuss the new law.

According to sources, the draft Telangana Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act has been prepared and revenue minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy submitted a draft copy to Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy.

The Gujarat Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act, brought into effect from December 2020, retrospectively criminalises “land grabbing” of both public and private property, reverses the burden of proof, and prescribes a minimum sentence of 10 years for violations.

It also provides for the punishment of land grabbers with an imprisonment, which can be extended to 14 years and a fine to the extent of the market value of the grabbed land.

In undivided Andhra Pradesh, there were two laws to prohibit land grabbing, namely the AP Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act, 1982 and the AP Land Encroachment Act, 1905. After the formation of Telangana in 2014, the government adopted both these laws.

The BRS government repealed the Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act in 2016 citing that there was no need for it when there was already the Land Encroachment Act, which could be utilised to check land grabbing.

But both the old laws lacked stringent provisions to prohibit the unauthorised taking over of land.

The repealed Land Grabbing Prohibition Act, stipulated imprisonment for between six months and up to five years, and a fine of up to `5,000.

The Land Encroachment Act allows the collector, tahsildar or deputy tahsildar to summarily evict anyone who is occupying land without authorisation. The law allows the government to collect an assessment from encroachers.

The state government examined the Land Grabbing Prohibition Act being implemented by few other states and found that Gujarat's legislation was more effective when compared with others and accordingly a draft law was prepared for discussion in the Cabinet meeting, sources added.