Telangana government retrives public land

The Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, aimed to prevent concentration of lands in the hands of few people, has set a limit of 1500 sq.mt. of land for individuals in Hyderabad.

However, the patta holders (holding several acres of land) sold the excess land to third parties, who in turn made fake layouts and sold it to individual buyers over the years in the form of plots.

In Shaikpet Mandal alone, several such houses have come up in over one lakh square yards in Jai Hind Colony, Vinayak Nagar, Alamira and other colonies. In Vinobha Nagar, which is completely government land, over 1500 houses have been constructed.

Mr Ali Ahamed, who bought a piece of land in Gulshan Colony, Shaikpet, said, “I bought the land here since it is close to Gachibowli, my place of work. I saw the owner’s papers where he had paid a certain amount of money to the government under regularization, and started the construction. But earlier this month, officials came and put up this notice board.”

Mr T. Chandrakala, Mandal Revenue Officer (MRO), Shaikpet Mandal, said, “Presently, such notice boards reclaiming the public land has been set up in both public land and also land under Urban Land Ceiling act, where constructions are under way, and also in open lands. Certain lands, that have not been regularised, even if original documents are present, can be regularised with the special officer of Urban Land Ceiling.”

Mr M.A. Khadeer Siddiqui, president of Gulshan Colony Welfare Association, said, “Several houses have come up in the area, of which some are completely on government land and some on land that needs to be regularized. But though several house owners have applied for regularization under ULC, regularization has not been taken up as they do not have proper link documents, and some are not able to pay the entire money for the plot as rates have gone up.