Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh government has initiated measures to restrain illegal layouts. The registration department has been ordered to register only plots that have necessary approvals.
According to the reports, there were 10,169 unauthorized layouts in 13 districts across the state, in which the majority were barred from having basic amenities including water, electricity and road. The present order would put an extra financial burden on those who had purchased plots in unauthorized layouts in order to get regularization.
Commissioner and Inspector general of stamps and registrations Rama Krishna issued an advisory to stop registration of plots of unauthorized layouts under the Registration Act 1908. He has asked deputy inspectors general and district registrars to register only plots approved by Directorate of Town Planning and Country Planning (DTCP).
He has warned that any deviation will be viewed seriously and punishment for violations will include even dismissal from service under CCA rules. He has also asked DIGs to monitor compliance and submit reports on the monthly basis.
According to sources, the government has decided to act tough against rule violations as it is losing huge revenue from registration of unauthorised layouts. Local bodies and urban development authorities are losing crores of rupees in revenue every year as realtors are not paying land development charges and betterment charges.
The local bodies are not giving permission to construct houses in the unauthorised layouts. This is forcing the plot owners to pay additional fees for regularization of unauthorized layouts to construct houses under the Layout Regularisation Scheme (LRS).
The government decided on strict implementation of the government order to restrain unauthorized layouts.
Earlier, the government had conducted a survey to know about the unauthorized layouts and noticed huge increase in the unauthorized layouts from the 2015 - 2019 period. There were 6,049 illegal layouts in 2015 and the number rose to 9,422 in 2019.
At present, there exist 10,169 illegal layouts in 13 districts.
The reports said that out of 10,169 unauthorized layouts spread in 37,684 acres, only 4,176 layouts have road facility, while 814 layouts have electricity lines and only 362 layouts have drinking water facility.
A majority of the unauthorized layouts are spread on 29,075 acres of lands, which were situated adjacent to or around the cities and towns.
Realtor Naresh Reddy said the real estate business is already in a crisis. “There is very little demand for plots due to the financial crisis caused by Covid19. New orders will increase the additional financial burden on realtors and it will further increase the prices of plots in the ventures. This would put a huge extra financial burden on the people and dampen the real estate business in the post-Covid season.”
Officials said the government issued orders for registration of only plots with proper approvals and stopping registration of unauthorized layouts in January 2020, but it was failing to implement this order properly. Now, the government has called for strict implementation of orders and the same is followed by the registration department.
