Telangana Bars Registration of Farmland Less than 20 Guntas

The Telangana municipal administration and urban development (MA&UD) department has told the registration and stamps department not to register farmland or plots below 20 guntas (2,000 square metres). The move comes after

BY Realty Plus
Published - Wednesday, 04 Aug, 2021

Telangana Bars Registration of Farmland Less than 20 Guntas

The Telangana municipal administration and urban development (MA&UD) department has told the registration and stamps department not to register farmland or plots below 20 guntas (2,000 square metres). The move comes after officials realised some property developers were registering open plots in illegal layouts in the name of ‘farm plots’. Unauthorised layout registration was banned by the state government in September 2020. Developers hit upon this idea after making efforts to sell undivided share of land in unapproved layouts and unregistered venture projects with Telangana Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) to gullible buyers. The developers were trying to take advantage of the fact that one does not need a layout copy to register agricultural land. “Besides stopping registration of farm plots below 20 guntas, we have also asked the registration department to insist on the layout copy if a farm plot abuts a new road,” MA&UD department principal secretary Arvind Kumar stated. He said the decision to stop registration of plots in unauthorised layouts had paid dividends and the government was able to control illegal ventures across the state. The government banned registration of non-agriculture properties not having either a layout copy in case of open plots or a sanctioned plan in case of buildings. Following this decision, thousands of layouts, which were developed without seeking approvals from the civic bodies, were stuck as layouts and plots could not be regularised under the layout regularisation scheme (LRS). Soon after banning illegal plots, 25 lakh applications were filed under the LRS.