Hyderabad: With the multi-crore Miyapur land scam creating ripples in administrative and political circles, the spotlight is on government lands in the state capital region, whose prices have skyrocketed over the past two decades as the result of a real estate boom.
Land grabbers have created sale deeds in collusion with ground-level staff of the Registration Department, to claim ownership of state-owned lands, much to the shock of various government departments.
The Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) is one of the departments facing this problem.
The Authority has a land bank of 8,000 acres, of which nearly 4,000 acres of land are under litigation. The Revenue Department had handed over the vacant lands, some of which were already in the midst of legal battles, to the metropolitan body, to either safeguard them, or utilise them for its own projects, or develop them and auction them to bring money into the state exchequer.
A majority of the HMDA lands are now stuck in legal battles. Of the 4,000 acres that are under litigation, 1,700 acres are in Jawaharnagar, 600 acres are in Kokapet, 693 acres are in Miyapur, and nearly 40 acres are opposite KIMS hospital in Secunderabad. Private individuals and parties are staking claim to government lands that have been allotted to the HMDA.
According to officials, these lands are worth nearly Rs 15,000 crore. Officials say that land sharks are using unfair means to grab government lands worth thousands of crores, but the metropolitan body has remained alert and managed to foil their attempts.
435 cases pertaining to the HMDA lands have been filed. While many of these cases are in lower courts, some have gone up to the Supreme Court as well.
The metropolitan body has a separate legal wing that is headed by a retired Joint Collector to handle these cases.
Officials say that the HMDA is in possession of the lands under litigation. “Public lands have been registered to private parties by corrupt staff in the registrars’ office. When the HMDA takes up an activity, some individuals come into the picture, stake claim to the property, and then approach the court. The good thing is that HMDA is still in possession of the thousands of acres that are under litigation,” says an official.
Case filed against sub-registrar
The Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) has filed a case against the Kukatpally sub-registrar for registering HMDA lands in Miyapur village in the name of private individuals.
In a complaint made to the Station House Office of Miyapur, the metropolitan body stated that the sub-registrar had blatantly violated government rules to favour private individuals.
The metropolitan body claimed that 693 acres of land in survey numbers— 20, 28, 100 and 101 were in its possession.
It said that it had received 445 acres in survey numbers 100 and 101 from the Ranga Reddy administration in 2003, and the remaining lands in survey numbers 20 and 28 has been given to it in 1980, for the development and mobilisation of resources. It said that 376 acres of land had been allotted to it, of which it had developed and auctioned 271 acres as a layout, and auctioned another 23 acres to Mantri Developers. The balance 82 acres remained in the metropolitan body’s possession.
The HMDA said that the records at the sub-registrar office indicated that P. Sanjeeva Parthasarathi and P.V.S. Sharma of Trinity Infrastructure had gotten a GPA from Ms Ameerunnissa Begum and seven others who claimed ownership of the lands.
They had executed the documents in favour of Trinity Infrastructure Limited, Suvishal Power Generation Limited, and Gold Stone Infra Tech.
In its complaint, the HMDA said that the documents had been registered by R. Srinivas Rao, the sub-registrar of Kukatpally, without the knowledge of the metropolitan body, which was the owner and possessor of the lands.
It said that the sub-registrar had criminally executed and registered sale deeds under the guise of patta lands, and thus cheated the HMDA and the government.
The metropolitan body requested the police to investigate the case in detail, and to take appropriate action against all the persons involved, as per the law.
