Telangana land survey: Crop loans claimed on non-existent 9,000 acres

Hyderabad: The land shown in pattadar passbooks could turn out to be more than the total area of the state, a sample of the data collected during the ongoing land survey has shown. Within a week of the survey, officials have found 9,000 additional acres shown in pattadar passbooks which never existed in reality. This was done to claim crop loans, an official said. Due to irregularities in land registrations by the revenue department, the fake land owners are enjoying the benefit of low-interest crop loans and crop loan waiver benefits.

Mahbubnagar district topped the state where land ownership was inflated by 1,500 acres. This was followed by Gadwal district (800 acres), Peddapalli (700 acres), Suryapet (650 acres), Nagarkurnool (600 acres), Suryapet (590 acres), Wanaparty (550 acres) and Kamareddy (500 acres). The rest of the excess land was found in other districts.

The survey also detected 4,000 acres which had not been entered into land records or pattadar passbooks. These lands are under the possession of people who have taken up agriculture and others who have built godowns, poultry farms and commercial ventures. Officials have so far identified 90,000 survey numbers which have not gone into the land records. More such instances are expected to be revealed by the time the land survey ends on December 31.

“Such inflated land ownership figures or survey numbers missing from land records is not possible without the help of revenue staff starting from mandal and village revenue offices. Fraudsters in collusion with corrupt staff enjoyed the benefits all these years as no land survey was taken up since the 1930s," said a senior official in the revenue department. He said the details of all such frauds would be forwarded to the goverment to decide on the action to be initiated against those responsible, he said.

This menace was more in villages surrounded by cities and towns where land value is high. For instance, Pulimamidi, a small village on the city outskirts, has 200 acres excess land shown in pattadar passbooks, which never existed in reality. These lands changed multiple hands, registrations were done for the past few decades without verifying whether these lands exist or not.