Eye on revenue, Telangana govt to regularise encroached land

HYDERABAD: In a fresh move to shore up the state exchequer, the Telangana government has decided to take up another round of regularisation of illegal structures built on encroached government land. While encroachments below 125 square yards of land will be regularised free of cost under the GO 58, the encroachments above 125 sq yards would be regularised by collecting penal amount based on basic value of the land.

The revenue department has issued GO (No. 14) on Monday giving another opportunity to the people to apply under the scheme for regularisation from February 21 to March 31.

"As a final opportunity for assignment, regularisation and transfer of rights over encroachments of unobjectionable state government land and the land owned by various departments, institutions and corporations under GO 58 and 59, the applications will be received at MeeSeva centres," the GO said.

The Telangana government had first provided this opportunity of regularisation in 2014 after TRS came to power. Committees have been constituted at district, secretary and government level to scrutinise the applications and clear them. There was a criticism on the GO earlier that even affluent people who had encroached upon the government land even in areas such as Jubilee Hills, Madhapur and other upmarket locations got their encroached land regularised paying a fee.

The government has been mulling over regularising encroached government land for the past few months. Municipal minister KT Rama Rao and city minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav held a meeting on this issue along with chief secretary Somesh Kumar and discussed the status of government land, including endowment land, and their protection.

To protect the government land parcels, which are free from encroachments, the state has decided to do geo-fencing and GIS mapping.