Hyderabad: Hundreds of acres of government land, worth hundreds of crores, is missing, thanks to inefficiency of the revenue department.
The reasons for such a huge loss are improper land records and re-survey, and incorrect preparation of village maps. These factors also lead to hundreds of litigations, causing loss to the exchequer.
According to experts, proper maintenance of land records at village and mandal levels and conducting periodical re-surveys, and regular updatation of land records are of vital importance in protecting the government lands.
In Gandhamvarigudem village in Nalgonda district, two survey numbers (418 and 419) overlapped on yet another survey number (417) in the village map. As per pahani (land record), the land pertaining to survey number 418 and 419 was patta land and belonged to 35 pattadars. As these two numbers got overlapped on survey number 417, about 500 acres of government land has become physically unavailable.
In Gopanpally village of Serilingampally mandal, revenue records were tampered with wrong entries in the Khasra Pahani. Two survey numbers 36 and 37 showed 888.24 acres. Of this, the government had alloted 205.20 acres to government employees housing society and 191.36 acres to University of Hydera-bad. The officials said due to tampering of the records, some interested parties made a claim over 90 acres in this land.
By changing the classification of 16 acres of maqtha land as patta land in Alwal village, the occupants of the land are claiming the ownership. The officials said maqtha is also a kind of inam and after abolition of inams, all the maqtha lands were vested in the state.
A dispute between forest department and the office of survey, settlement and land records over a 4,690- acre land in Nizamabad halted the updation of land records.
