VIJAYAWADA: State govt is seriously contemplating to revive the scheme regularizing encroached house-sites by relaxing rules. The state govt has asked the revenue department to study the issue and send suitable proposals. Sources said that chief minister Chandrababu Naidu has decided to regularize house-sites of the poor who encroached govt lands.
Though the previous YSRC govt initiated a scheme for regularization of govt land encroached by private people after scrutiny, its decision to collect huge charges discouraged people. While the house-sites and buildings constructed on govt land within 100 sq.yards of land were regularized with nominal fee, those who encroached more than 100 sq.yards of land were asked to pay almost 50-100 percent of the market price as fee for regularisation.
In fact, in many places, the govt land which was left unprotected in remote areas or outskirts of the towns and cities were encroached by the poor decades ago and got houses constructed. The local bodies have been collecting taxes on such properties for several years. In many cases, the properties have also changed hands. Although, such properties could not be registered and transferred as per the law, the transactions were done through some agreements on stamp papers. Since such properties were mostly sold at almost 30-50 percent of the market prices, there is no dearth of buyers.
The hefty fee fixed by the previous regime had not attracted people to get the assets regularized. Subsequently, the govt in 2023 revised the fee structure but still garnered poor response.
After going through several representations of the poor during his Praja darbar in the party central office, chief minister Chandrababu Naidu directed the officials to study the issue and come with suitable recommendations.
Sources said that the chief minister is of the view that revenue department at the field level should study each and every case to make recommendations for regularization. The govt will regularize only unobjectionable encroachments but not all. A nominal fee is expected to be fixed for the lands between 150-300 and 300-500 sq.yards. It is most unlikely to regularize encroached land parcels above 500 sq.yards
Source Homevior.in
