Andhra Pradesh favours illegal estates, shows irregularities: Report
Hyderabad: The vigilance and enforcement department has exposed various loopholes in the revenue, panchayat raj, municipal and registration departments, which have resulted in loss of crore of rupees as the officials favoured real estate companies who developed illegal layouts.
These departments have not been updating the prohibited list of government lands, which has resulted in real estate companies laying hands on assigned lands, and there was no monitoring of unauthorised layouts in panchayats.
The vigilance department has come out with several recommendations to the government departments, to correct the system, after finding that the city-based Janaharsha realtors had committed irregularities in violation of all existing rules and evaded requisite fees, such as nala conversion fee, amounting to '6.73 crore, layout processing fees, and development fees, causing huge loss to the government.
The vigilance department alleged that Janaharsha had purchased vast extents of agricultural land in Ibrahimpatnam and Manchal mandals, in RR district, and failed to secure mutation in the revenue records. The company did not file declaration before the revenue divisional office for acquiring land exceeding the ceiling limit.
When contacted, director-general of vigilance and enforcement R.P. Thakur said he had received the report from the Hyderabad rural regional unit regarding Janaharsha irregularities.
The report alleged, “An extent of two acres of reserve forest land at Naganpally block was encroached by Janaharsha, exploiting the existing difference between the boundary lines fixed by the forest officials initially, by way of trenching and later erecting pillars. Forest officials failed to protect the lands. A loss of '3.9 crore was detected on unauthorised consumption of minor minerals found, apart from 6.73 crore loss. It has acquired 535 acres of Bhoodan land and 266 acres assigned to bonded labourers.”
The department has asked the government to devise penal procedures to initiate actions against illegal layouts. It also suggested integrated software for all the departments to avoid violations. The department asked the government to issue instructions, to collectors, to update the prohibition of transfer of state lands’ lists, including assigned lands, Bhoodan lands and lands acquired by the government.
