Land regularisation: deadline stays

The State government has ruled out extension of deadline for regularisation of encroachments in unassigned government lands beyond August 31.

It was earlier stretched from June 1 to August 31 and Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy was firm in his stand that no further extension be granted, said D.K. Panwar, Chief Commissioner of Land Administration (CCLA).

He told a press conference here on Monday that 98,000 applications were so far received by Collectors in districts seeking regularisation of lands in pursuance of an order issued by the government in February. The order specified the new policy of the government about transfer of rights to certain categories of occupants of unassigned government lands. The cut-off date for occupation was fixed at December 31, 2003.

He expected the number of applications to go up to 1.5 lakh by August 31. Of the applications received, he said 78,705 were for regularisation of lands up to 250 sq.yds, 7,750 for lands measuring 250 to 500 sq.yds and 2,474 for lands above 500 sq.yds.

There were 67,000 applicants in Ranga Reddy and Hyderabad districts together. Ranga Reddy alone accounted for 52,074 applications seeking regularisation of 2,139 acres.
Court litigations

Mr. Panwar also said that 55 to 60 per cent of requests related to lands up to 80 sq.yds. There were no court litigations in this category of holdings as the occupants were slum dwellers or other weaker sections. There were a lot of litigations with respect to higher land holdings owing to multiple claims over the property.

The CCLA expected the process of regularisation to be completed within three months.