Registration of govt lands go unabated

Anantapur: Prohibited (government) lands worth several crores of rupees are being purchased and sold and illegally registered with the connivance of sub-registrars concerned. 

In the process, even lands that are in litigation pending court verdicts also are being registered ignoring legal disputes. This is happening due to the lenient attitude of district registrars and the office of the DIG of Stamps and Registrations department.

The Sub Registrars’ Offices (SROs) have been deliberately registering government lands in favour of private realtors despite the rules that government lands should not be registered in the name of private parties.

Scores of acres of government lands in Itukalapalle, Kandukuru, Bukkacherla, Kodimi, Rachanapalle, Narayanapuram and B K Samudram stand illegally occupied and registered in favour of private parties just for a song. 

Incensed at the dubious role of the government registration officials, Bhanumurthy and Somsekhar of Viraj Builders have approached the district court for justice against sub-registrar for illegal registration of their two plots in survey numbers 159 1A and 1B with document numbers 16468/2018 and 1010/2019.

Despite filing a cheating case on the parties concerned and the issue pending in the court, the issue has not been taken into cognizance by the registration officials, stated Bhanumurthy and Somsekhar in their complaint. They maintained that they are approaching the High Court against the top registration officials for their lethargy in the matter. 

This is just one example of the way the office of the Stamps and Registration department is functioning and those used to the illegal activity are only following the dictum ‘make hay while the sun shines’ as so far no major action had been taken against the culprits despite the media highlighting the issue several times in the past. 

In many cases, agriculture passbooks were issued to the beneficiaries without verifying the nature of lands registered. District Collector Veera Pandian, when contacted, told The Hans India that the reports and complaints will be verified and if found to be true action will be initiated by the government and all transactions by vested interests nullified.