Visakhapatnam: Bringing a smile on the faces of those living in Gajuwaka where land registrations have been stalled for more than 10 years, the state government recently issued orders to regularise the lands. The bustling Gajuwaka has been facing a peculiar problem. Due to a dispute between the state revenue department and the then zamindar of that area, the residents in the area have not been able to buy or sell the land.
The issue has been lying unresolved since 1970s. There are no land registrations in almost 900 acres of land which has turned a prime locality now, where huge buildings have come up over the years. Those who are already residing in those areas are termed as illegal, though they owned the piece of land from the zamindar. "It has been taken to the notice of the government that a large number of families have encroached/occupied government lands within Gajuwaka revenue village area, Visakhapatanam district, and constructed structures and made representations to regularise these encroachments as many of the encroachments are unobjectionable. Regularisation, on one hand, will resolve the hardship of the people and on the other, will enable the government and the concerned urban local bodies to have a planned development in the localities," said the GO No 301 which was released recently.
The issue has been examined in consultation with the Chief Commissioner of Land Administration, A.P. Accordingly, a scheme for regularisation of encroachments/ occupations in government land within Gajuwaka revenue village area, Visakhapatanam district, by way of structures up to 1,000 sq.yards has been approved, subject to the outcome of W.P.No.6639 of 2003 pending before the High Court, as a special case and this order shall not be the precedent case to any other cases in future.
"We are very happy that such an order has been issued. The order is the result of our relentless effort for the last two years," said Gajuwaka MLA Palla Srinivas Rao. While a sub-division level approval committee (SDLAC) will be constituted to consider the cases up to 400 sq. yards, a district-level approval committee (DLAC) will be constituted to consider the cases from 401 to 1000 sq.yards.
In the SDLAC, the revenue divisional officer (RDO) will be the chairman and the town planning officer, will be the member, local tahsildar, will be member-convener. In the DLAC district, Joint Collector will be the Chairman, Municipal Commissioner, and Vuda vice chairman will be the members and the District Revenue Officer (DRO) will be the Member-Convener.
The Committee at each level will take a decision within 90 days from the date of receipt of the application. Otherwise, the application will be deemed to have been approved, said a senior official of the district administration.
