Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s warning to reclaim encroached lands, whose owners fail to apply for the ongoing regularisation scheme, has failed to create any impact. Though the deadline will end on Jan. 19, the scheme has been receiving poor response.
The government had estimated an income of Rs 5,000 crore from the scheme, but going by the poor response, it may not fetch even Rs 5 crore. The deadline has been extended till January 31. At a recent meeting, Mr Rao had said, “If the government sells even four small parcels of land in the city, it would earn thousands of crores of rupees. There will be no dearth of funds to Telangana government.” But the ground realities present a completely contrasting picture.
The government has received 96,000 applications till Saturday under ‘free of cost regularisation scheme for the poor’ below 125 sq. yards, which means this would not fetch any income to the government. For regularisations under payment category above 125 sq. yards, only 1,300 applications were received.
The norms stipulated by the government to regularise lands under payment category is said to be the reason for applicants running away from submitting applications. They need to shell out 25 per cent to 100 per cent of the market value in different slabs above 125 sq. yards to 1,000 sq. yards to get their lands regularised.
For instance, to regularise a 300 sq. yard plot in posh Jubilee Hills/ Banjara Hills area, a plot owner has to pay Rs 95 lakh for regularisation according to government orders. Though 4,000 plot owners visited the Shaikpet MRO office under which these posh areas come, they returned without submitting applications unable to pay the amount within the deadline.
“The government orders are faulty and unrealistic. How is it possible for people from middle and lower income groups to mobilise and pay such a huge amount within 10 to15 days? The government should completely revise and liberalise these norms and extend the deadline to protect the interests of these sections,” said K.P. Vivekananda Goud, MLA, Qutbullapur.
He said the GOs also lacked clarity whether assigned lands or disputed lands would be regularised or not and the government needs to clarify this immediately.
