Government land is nobody’s property!

If there is one natural resource that has been exploited by political bosses over a period of time to serve their vested interests, then it is government land. If someone has the right political connections and the patience to wait, he can usurp any piece of such land. In a jiffy, his ‘prized possession’ is allotted to him with a legal cover.

A change of regimes does not really make any difference since the same set of characters start operate the devious mechanism. The manner in which our Revenue records are kept and the slack supervision by concerned officers allows all sorts of frauds to be perpetuated with reference to those lands.

The modus operandi is plain and simple-establish a ‘Suitcase’ company and approach the government for allocation of land. To make it more convenient, there are Chartered Accountants, who can prepare a smart Project Report that magnifies ‘employment generation’ and ‘bolster State exchequer’ and justifies getting the ‘identified’ land at throwaway prices.

The land commanding a market price of Rs one crore is ‘gifted’ at Rs 10 lakh or even Rs one lakh since they can ‘contribute’ to the well-being of the economy. Since he will have to raise resources for investing in the Industry, he would necessarily request the government (which will be obliged pronto) to give him the authority to mortgage the land for raising capital through financial institutions. Once he gets the nod, the same is mortgaged at the prevailing market price!

Hence, by paying Rs five crore to the government, one gets land whose value is Rs 50 crore. That is just not that. The individual also gets a loan of Rs 50 crore from financial institutions by mortgaging the same. Even if he has to shell down Rs 10 crore in kickbacks to bureaucrats and politicians, the street-smart ‘entrepreneur’ can still laugh his way to the bank.

In case, he defaults on the repayment, the bank can make good by selling the ‘mortgaged’ land. There are no bad debts, whatsoever. The loser will be the government since land worth Rs 50 is lost in the transaction and eventually no industry may come up. This is one major fraud that is played on government lands by any number of dynamic ‘entrepreneurs’. Of course, ones affiliated to the party in power.

When I was the Chief Commissioner of Land Administration (CCLA) I tried my best to get a Cap placed on the rate at which such companies can mortgage the land with financial institutions at a rate not higher than the rate at which land is allotted to that company by the government. I failed in this regard both as CCLA and subsequently as Chief Secretary since the interests that are inter-connected with this type of an allocation are too strong and too deep for any bureaucrat to touch or disturb.

The other major fraud that is played with such lands is getting documents fabricated and converting them with the connivance of the local Revenue Establishment as private land over a period of time. This of course takes a long time and requires lot of patience for the party to fight it out in different Courts of Law and management of Government Departments at different levels.

However, there are some professional manipulators, who take this route and succeed in getting land, irrespective of the regime in power since the brokers who operate in these segments have well established contacts with all the political parties. Irrespective of whether it is Daspalla hills in Visakhapatnam or Miyapur lands in Hyderabad, in the end these operators will be successful in claiming and getting Title Deeds to government lands. Since this is a long-drawn process all that they need is deep pockets and patience. If any inconvenient officer pops up once in a while, they either wait till he moves out or manipulate to get him out and continue to rule the roost.

Imperfectly maintained land records also help such operators in this process along with conniving revenue officials and helpful politicians. There is one post of Commissioner Appeals in the Land Revenue Commissioner office. Generally the most corrupt officer, who is also willing to oblige the powers that be, is posted there. He hears all cases of appeal on land issues and disposes them. Already, most of the valuable government lands have gone and it is only a matter of time before the rest also vanish.

In the circumstances, it would be a better proposition to sell the left over government lands in open auction and create a separate fund with the proceeds so raised. This fund can be utilised to buy out land for any government purpose as and when required instead of holding on to the government lands, which, in any case, the governments have neither the will nor the ability to protect. (The writer is former Chief Secretary, Government of Andhra Pradesh)