Hyderabad: The Telangana government will take up a comprehensive land survey across the state by spending nearly Rs 600 crore. The land survey is being done after over eight decades. It has sought financial assistance from the Centre.
The existing land records in the state were prepared based on the land survey done by the Nizam government in 1938.
Though the land survey has to be carried out once in 30 years, no such efforts were made by successive governments in the Telangana region.
With Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao firm on taking back encroached government lands along the lines of the ongoing crackdown on Gurukul Trust lands in the city, the revenue department has initiated measures to take up a resurvey of lands in the state to identify irregularities in land registrations.
With no proper land records, the TRS government is not in a position to reclaim valuable government and Wakf lands, especially in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts, where realty prices have been sky high during the last decade.
Several lands have been registered under multiple names illegally, which ended up in court cases.
“The revenue department is forced to rely on land records that were prepared during the Nizam's rule. Several irregularities have taken place in land registrations, and over the years acres and acres of government and Wakf lands have been encroached upon. But the department is not in a position to establish the irregularities as there are no proper land records. Now that Telangana state has been formed, it has become important to carry out a resurvey of the land in the state,” said Mohd Mahmood Ali, deputy chief minister, who also holds the portfolio of the revenue department.
Mr Ali also took up the issue of resurvey at the recent Conference of State Revenue Ministers convened by the Centre on June 27 in New Delhi.
He urged Union minister, Nitin Gadkari, who chaired the conference, to allot Rs 600 crore to the state to take up resurvey of lands.
“We are confident that the Centre will extend financial assistance. We are planning to launch the survey soon after discussing it in the cabinet,” Mr Ali added.
