VISAKHAPATNAM: In order to check the land offences in Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation limits, for the first time in the state, the Revenue department is making an exercise to bring out an exclusive land document ‘Urban Adangal’. While nomenclature is yet to be formalised, for the easy correspondence the officials have named it as Urban Adangal.
During the past one and a half decades the land prices and value have shot up several times in and around the city. The areas like Bheemili, Pendurty, Simhachalam, Gajuwaka and Anakapalle which were earlier semi-urban areas have been witnessing an alarming increase in land disputes. With the rapid urbanisation for every industrial and commercial developmental activities a huge extent of agricultural lands are being used.
During the process, acres of land are divided and sold in cents or sq.yards. As these plots are handled by different people involved in the sales and purchases the authority is finding it difficult to update the mother document of the land records ‘Adangal’.
Meanwhile, entry of several gangsters and land-grabbers into the city has paved the way for major property offences in the recent past. Major police stations in the city limits have been receiving large number of complaints concerning land disputes and plenty of these cases are pending with various courts.
In order to put an end to the land grabbing menace in the city limits, collector N Yuvaraj has decided to prepare an exclusive land revenue record for easy identification of the land owner using a unique identification code. The Karnataka government had already made a similar initiative in Bangalore. Like the Bangalore land revenue document, the collector has asked all the tahasildars in the GVMC jurisdiction to start working on the mission and prepare an exclusive land document _ Urban Adangal. The revenue officials have started listing out original owners of each piece of land following the existing Adangal.
No More Land Sharks
“This is a new initiative to check the land-related crimes and offences. The Urban Adangal will reflect the names of the real owners of every plot, house and other properties in the city limits. With the help of GVMC and VUDA records, the department will prepare the document that includes details of previous and present owner’s name of the property,” joint collector J Nivas said.
The present Adangal has not been updated because of the rapid urbanisation. Still majority of Adangal records reveals decades-old ownership details. Taking advantage of the scenario, the land sharks create fake documents to occupy lands in and around the city.
“The collector’s idea is to bring out an authentic document for every property in the city solving all the associated crimes. However, there are several issues to be settled while preparing such a document. Once the document is prepared it should be approved by the government and a gazette should also be released,” a senior revenue official explained.
