Telangana 98,000 acres Illegally Purchased by Realty Companies

The revenue department said over 98,000 acres of government assigned land in the state is either gobbled up by land sharks or illegally sold by allottees. Of this total parcel of land, 6,600 acres is illegally purchased by realty companies, individuals and institution

BY Realty Plus
Published - Tuesday, 04 May, 2021

Telangana 98,000 acres Illegally Purchased by Realty Companies

The revenue department said over 98,000 acres of government assigned land in the state is either gobbled up by land sharks or illegally sold by allottees. Of this total parcel of land, 6,600 acres is illegally purchased by realty companies, individuals and institutions in erstwhile Rangareddy district alone, it said. The government is seeking reports from district collectors on the status of assigned land in the state in the wake of large-scale encroachments. Assigned land is a parcel of land allotted by the government to landless poor for agriculture purposes. Farmers do not have any powers to sell or transfer the land to other parties and if they resort to any such activity, it would be illegal. However, there have been several instances of farmers selling their assigned land parcels to private parties in the last 20 years. “As per the Telangana Assigned lands Prohibiton of Transfer Act 1977, sale or alienation or transfer of assigned land is both civil and criminal office and a tahsildar can take action. There are some exceptions. It is not applicable to land assigned prior to 1958 and banks going for an auction when the land was mortgaged ,” M Suneel Kumar, an expert on land laws, told. A revenue divisional officer of erstwhile Rangareddy district said the farmers continue to resort to sale of assigned land despite several warnings. “Such violations come to our notice when farmers illegally sell their land at cheaper rates at Rs 5 lakh. Now, the selling price tops Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore,” he said. The district administration has filed cases in 4,200 illegal transactions in the past few years. As resuming an assigned land is a cumbersome process and one which could upset farmers, the state government has recently decided to auction them by paying compensation to the allottees. The chief minister had thought of regularisation of assigned land by collecting some penal amount. He had even admitted on the floor of the assembly that several thousands of illegal transactions on assigned land were taking place land administration said. In another move, the government has also decided to take over the assigned land from the allottees for setting up industries and SEZs like Hyderabad Pharma City.