Officials of Vellore Corporation retrieved around 25 acres of land, on which unapproved layouts were planned by private realtors, at several locations in the city.
An official team headed by Mayor P Karthiyayini and Commissioner P Janaki Raveendran visited the private lands with layouts, unapproved by the local body, at zone 1- Dharapadavedu on Thursday.
Town planning officer M Kannan, who accompanied the team, said the realtors in the city designed the layouts for plots without the knowledge of local body. The innocent public purchased the land without enquiring about the approval for the layout and the required documents and constructed houses. Later, these people demanded road, and water facilities in the areas, which the local body cannot provide, as the layout was not approved by the Corporation.
Following such confusions, a raid was conducted on Thursday in Dharapadavedu. As many as four unapproved layouts at Kalinjur measuring about 4.5 acres, 3 acres at Thiruvalluvar Nagar, 4 acres behind VIT University and 10 acres at Baraneeshpuram were identified. The stones which were buried to mark the plots were thrown away, Kannan said.
The team visited zone 2-Sathuvachari, where a layout measuring 2.5 acres near Rangapuram was found to be unapproved. The stones were removed from this land also.
Kannan said the realtors who had put the layout should approach the local body and get it approved prior to advertising it. The officials cautioned the public that they should check the documents before purchasing the land. They also said that such drives to check unapproved layouts would continue in the future.