Andhra Pradesh halts registrations in illegal layouts

Guntur: The state government directed to stop registration of unauthorized lay-outs under Registration Act 1908 and instructed the deputy inspector generals and district registrars to register only plots approved by Directorate of Town Planning and Country Planning (DTCP).

The commissioner and inspector general of stamps and registrations V Rama Krishna issued orders to this effect. He warned that any deviation will be viewed seriously and punishment for violations will include even dismissal from service under CCA Rules. He instructed the DIGs to monitor the compliance and submit reports on the monthly basis.

According to sources, the government had decided to act tough on violation as it is losing revenue to registration of unauthorised layouts. Local bodies and urban development authorities are said to be losing crores of rupees of revenue every year as realtors are not paying land development charges and betterment charges.

In addition, local bodies are not giving permission to construct houses in the unauthorised layouts. As a result, vacant lands are increasing on city and town outskirts. Plot owners are paying fees to the local bodies and regularising their unauthorized layouts to construct houses under the Lay-Out Regularisation Scheme. Taking this into consideration, the government stopped the registration of the unauthorised layouts.

A realtor K S Kumar said real estate business is already in crisis. At present there is no demand for plots due to financial crisis caused by Covid-19. Orders of the government will increase additional financial burden on the realtors, he added.