Hyderabad: The Telangana state government will legalise lands purchased through sada bainama (plain paper) transactions. The state formation day, June 2, 2014, will be taken as the cut-off date for this.
There are a large number of cases in all districts where people have purchased land using plain paper documents (sada bainama) rather than on stamp paper, as required by law, to formalise transactions.
Though such lands have been under their possession for decades, they are not registered since the transactions took place on plain paper.
A survey conducted by the revenue department revealed that the average extent of land under sada bainama transactions in each district was between 30,000 to 1 lakh acre.
At the district collectors’ conference in Hyderabad on Monday, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao directed collectors to register these lands for free up to five acres for a week from June 2 on the occasion of the state formation day. He also asked officials to take up mutation of ancestral lands.
He said, “In Telangana, land transactions still continue to be held on plain paper in rural areas. This is because poor people are unable to afford registration charges or due to lack of awareness. Some transactions date back to 20 or 30 years. When such lands are coming up for registration now, various problems are cropping up regarding their ownership. Officials should register all such lands from June 2 to June 10 and computerise records. It should be done free of cost if the extent of land is up to 5 acre.”
Mr Rao expressed anger at the huge corruption in mutation of ancestral lands. “Officials are not doing mutation (ownership / name change) of ancestral properties unless they are bribed. They are keeping such applications pending for years,” he said and fixed a 10-day deadline.
