Hyderabad: Investigations into the Miyapur land registration scam have thrown up evidence of other land scams in the making. The investigating officials have alerted the government about possible land scams in Batasingaram (Hayathnagar mandal), Ghatkesar mandal, on the outskirts of the city, Ramachandrapuram, Yapral and Shamshabad, if the government fails to take swift action to nip irregularities in the bud.
Some 3,000 acres of government land is at risk in these areas and being targeted by land grabbers. While some land parcels have already been registered, others are pending with sub-registrar offices.
The scam alert assumes significance in the backdrop of the Telangana state cabinet meeting on Saturday to discuss land scams and measures to be taken to reclaim government lands and to protect government lands from encroachments in future.
Land grabbers have targeted government land, assigned land, jagir, and evacuee/enemy property by creating forged documents.
“The modus operandi of these land grabbers is that they obtained GPAs for the land through forged documents and get them registered. They bribe revenue officials and sub-registrars and get these registered lands incorporated under Record of Rights (RoRs), get the mutations done and obtain pattas and title deeds. They have now started selling these lands to others and creating multiple sale deed documents and approaching the courts claiming ownership with the registered documents,” an official source informed.
The investigations have revealed that some documents have already been registered but are awaiting RoR approval and mutations from the revenue department.
“The government should immediately direct revenue officials in these mandals not to go ahead with RoR or mutation, which will give land ownership rights to the land grabbers, making it difficult for the government to reclaim the land later. The government will have to fight a long battle in the courts to reclaim these lands once RoR and mutation is done,” the source added.
Another illegal method is to buy private land adjacent to government land and encroach onto the government land by constructing compound walls and small structures on it and deploy private security to guard these lands.
Some 600 property transactions done through forged documents are awaiting clearance at sub-registrar and revenue offices for registration and mutation and they need to be stopped immediately.
