A.P.’s lands freehold scheme: preliminary inquiry reveals 680 acres transferred illegally

A consolidated preliminary inquiry report of six select districts points out that there were serious violations in the registration of the lands pertaining to the “freehold of assigned lands” scheme brought by the previous YSRCP government, which was accessed by The Hindu.

The special committees, which were constituted by the NDA State government under the Special Deputy Collectors, have conducted a preliminary inquiry into the alleged illegal registration of assigned lands at one mandal in each six districts.  

The report is prepared based on re-verification of land registrations of 1,838 transactions with an extent of nearly 30,000 acres of assigned lands made freehold.

It maintained that, out of them, 417 transactions with an extent of about 680 acres was allegedly registered not in accordance with the law.

Each inquiry Committee is headed by a Special Deputy Collector, while others include a Tahsildar, a Mandal Surveyor and an Assistant Registrar as members. These Committees were mandated for the re-verification of physical and electronic Revenue and Registration records pertaining to Government lands and freehold of assigned lands, dotted lands, village service inam lands and Sharathugala Patta lands and subsequent transactions and establish the genuineness of the cases in accordance with Act and rules along with Proformas. These Committees have been constituted at Kanigiri mandal in Prakasam district, Srikalahasti mandal in Tirupati district, Mydukuru mandal in YSR Kadapa district, Bathalapalli mandal in Sri Sathya Sai district, Vedurukuppam mandal in Chittoor district and Veeraballi mandal in Annamayya district.

Reports of each district

Prakasam district Collector submitted a report revealing that, “An extent of 11,931 acres was de-notified and made freehold. Out of it, an extent of 591 acres was found to be done not as per the said G.O. Ms. No. 596. It could be inferred that due diligence was not followed during the verification work. Out of 263 land transactions made here, 26 transactions with an extent of 56 acres had occurred not in accordance with law.”

Annamayya District collector maintained that, “An extent of 4774 acres was made freehold. Out of it, an extent of 2022 acres found not as per the G.O. In 50 cases, the executants are neither original assignees nor legal heirs of the original assignees. In 95 transactions with an extent of 180 acres occurred not in accordance with law. In 14 cases, the subject land was not listed in the District Collector’s proceedings for denotification but they were made freehold and got registered. Some Survey numbers, which are classified as Dotted as per RSR are kept under assignment land and made freehold without regularization under A.P. Dotted Land Regularization Act-2017”.  

As per the report from Chittoor District collector, “In 98 cases, the executants are neither original assignee nor legal heirs. Out of 304 transactions, 160 transactions with an extent of 216 acres occurred not in accordance with law”.

Similarly, Sri Sathya Sai District collector informed that, “An extent of 8227 acres land was made freehold. Out of 267 transactions, the executants are neither original assignee nor legal heirs in 23 cases. In addition to that, 30 transactions with an extent of 54 acres occurred not in accordance with law. Here, in some cases the registrations are found erroneous, and in other cases wrongly made freehold.”

YSR Kadapa District Collector revealed that, “An extent of 2788 acres land was made freehold. Out of that, an extent of 576 acres found to be not according to the G.O. Out of 320 transactions, in 50 cases, the executants are neither original assignee nor legal heirs. Further, 57 transactions with an extent of 101 acres occurred not in accordance with law”.

Tirupati District Collector also submitted a report stating that, “An extent of 9316 acres land was de-notified land made freehold. Out of it, an extent of 1914 acres found to be not in accordance with the G.O. Out of 418 transactions, in 29 cases executants are others, but not the assignees. Among these transactions, 49 transactions with an extent of 69 acres occurred not in accordance with law”.