Illegal registrations of govt lands flourish in Anantapur

Anantapur: Illegal registration of 'Prohibited' government lands by the sub-registrars in the district in connivance with mandal revenue officers and their staff concerned is going on unabated in the district.

A political-Revenue-Registrar department's nexus makes it a smooth affair benefiting private realtors and all stakeholders involved in monetary form. To the knowledge of this reporter having supportive documents, it is 500 acres but the real figures if investigated into could be mind boggling.

A virtual loot of government property had been going on for over 3 decades .The magnitude of land scam has brought the situation to such a pass that not only in the district but the situation all over the state is the same, that the state government is compelled to purchase private land for its housing purpose in several districts including the local district.

About 500 acres of government lands stand illegally registered in the name of realtors with the tacit support of a section of revenue officials. The district has two registrars, one in Anantapur and other in Hindupur working under DIG of Stamps and Registration apart from another registrar in-charge of Audit department.

The DIG, Stamps and Registrations Madhavi, a week ago suspended sub-registrar Suresh Achari for registering prohibited land in Raptadu in survey no 123-2. This is just a tip of ice-berg and several skeletons would roll if an enquiry by a non-revenue official is ordered into by the collector.

The Audit department which is supposed to audit the transactions in the Registration department surprisingly has not pointed out any irregularities which had happened over the years. Illegal registration of government lands had been going on from 1990 to till date.

The government lands registered in acres include Itukalapalle 114, Kakkalapalle 68, Govindapalle in Bukkarayasamudram mandal 115, and Kodimi 60 acres. All details of prohibited lands are in public domain for anyone to see and one can easily find out in whose possession these lands are in, if surveyed.

These precious lands which were supposed to be used for public purpose was deliberately registered to private parties to amass personal wealth. Services of out-sourced workers were being used for cash transactions in the shady deals.

The Stamps and Registration department although is far ahead of other departments in giving revenue to government but its illegal registration of government lands is depriving the government of the precious land bank which it needs to cater for public purposes.

In Hindupur registration office, the story is the same. One such example is in Kodikonda, 5.41 acres of government land had been registered in 2014 in survey number 38/3A and 38/3B and another 4.17 acres in the same village in survey number 12/1 in 2013.

165 acres in Rayadurg and 20 acres in Kodikonda of government lands had been registered in favour of private parties. Post bifurcation of the state, land values have increased even in the backward district.