Land sharks eye govt lands in Karimnagar

Karimnagar: Dissatisfied even after encroaching vacant lands in the fast-developing Karimnagar district, land sharks laid their eyes on government lands.

Land rates in the villages that were merged with Karimnagar Municipal Corporation have increased enormously in recent times. Taking this as an advantage, as the Bommakal village was also merged under KMC, the land sharks started illegal business by encroaching not only private lands by threatening the people but also the government lands using political influence with the support of ruling party leaders.

About 200 acres of government land in Bommakal village worth more than Rs 100 crore was encroached by some people, involved in land encroachment and settlement of disputed lands. Despite the orders issued by the government and the District Collector to stop registrations of such lands, some persons with the support of political leaders grabbed government lands and selling it with the help of their political influence.

Bommakal village ward member T Kiran Kumar in the past complained to the District Collector about land encroachment and selling it. Kiran Kumar alleged that a number of illegal layouts come up in survey numbers - 125, 126, 127 and 129 in the village without Nala conversion. The land grabbers even encroached lands meant for parks and playgrounds and sold them.

Any contractor constructing an apartment with more than eight flats and ventures in more than 500 sq mts has to register with Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) after taking approval from DTCP and HMDA. If the project is delayed, a penalty of Rs 10,000 per day will be imposed along with three years imprisonment. But there is no DTCP layout and RERA in Karimnagar, he added.

Loksatta Udyama Samstha (LUS) members gave representation to the District Collector and also sent a copy to the Chief Secretary of the government and Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, demanding the government to take immediate action against land grabbers, who encroached government lands in Bommakal village.

They alleged that some officials, who were involved with land mafia, are giving permissions to the persons, who purchased lands from land grabbers for house construction. In the name of Royal Homes, builders started house construction in the encroached lands bearing survey numbers 33, 69, 71 and 72, which belong to the government. They demanded immediate action against the officials, who gave permission for this.

Not only in Bommakal village, as the lands' price reached sky high due to the boom in realty sector in the recent past before corona outbreak, land sharks started encroaching vacant lands along the SRSP canal from Kottapalli to Chintakunta region.

Earlier, the government had acquired nine kilometer land for Sri Ram Sagar Project (SRSP) canal from the farmers in Kotapalli, Malkapur and Chintakunta villages. After SRSP canal was constructed, 15 guntas land in the nine kilometres region acquired by the government remained unused. Such lands can be used by the owners (If they are alive), but none has the right either to sell or to construct anything in such places.

As the lands prices increased, some persons changed the records that were registered under SRSP on their names and sold the land to others.

From 1970 to 2017, the lands under survey number 74 were registered under SRSP.

A few persons, who are unaware of all these, started constructions on such lands and laid foundation stones.

The SRSP officials along with locals had taken the issue to the notice of the district administration and even wrote letters to the Mandal Revenue Officer, Mandal Parishad Development Officer and District Registrar concerned. But there is no response from the officials.

The people alleged that the political party leaders joining hands with the revenue officials are trying to encroach valuable government lands and demanded the government to take immediate action against those, who are encroaching government lands.