Hyderabad: The TS government is likely to scrap the facility to register properties anywhere.
The ‘anywhere registration’ facility was launched in undivided AP in 2013 but was found to have been misused by encroachers who got government lands registered at registration offices of their choice with the “help” of some unscrupulous staff of the stamps and registration department.
The government received large-scale complaints regarding such irregularities, especially in sub-registrar offices (SROs) in Kukatpally, Balanagar, Narsingi and LB Nagar.
The facility was introduced for the convenience of property buyers wherein they could register property from any sub-registrar’s office within the same district.
However, complaints that the facility was being misused to get registered government lands, prohibited lands, private lands and disputed lands came to the fore, forcing the government to order an inquiry by the revenue department.
The preliminary inquiry revealed that a property which was rejected for registration in a particular sub-registrar office was registered later in another office within the same district.
For instance, while Rajendranagar SRO has been rejecting registration of properties located in Upparpally on the ground of them being in “prohibited lands list”, the same were being registered in Balanagar SRO.
It was found that the Balanagar SRO, which registers 4,000 properties per year on an average, had registered 4,000 properties during the last four months alone. Of these, half were located in the jurisdiction of other SROs.
Cases of registration of prohibited lands also came to light. Similar complaints were received from other SROs in the city. Following this, the government constituted a two-member committee to probe the issue.
The committee is learnt to have recommended scrapping of the facility and reintroducing it after the plugging the loopholes in the existing method. Deputy CM Mohd. Mahmood Ali, who holds the revenue portfolio, said, “We are yet to take a final call on whether to continue with the facility or not. It is being misused by some vested interests.”
