HYDERABAD: Telangana's Registration and Stamps Department recent ban on regularisation of unapproved layouts has been welcomed by many. Real estate developers from Hyderabad point out that this will help in preventing the haphazard development of the city caused due to the mushrooming of illegal layouts.
However, they also point out that the State government should now bring in a new Land Regularization Scheme (LRS) to regularise unapproved and illegal layouts developed under Gram Panchayats and new municipalities, where the scheme was never taken up.
"The ban on regularisation of unapproved layouts is a welcome move as it will help control the business of illegal layouts and will hurt the interests of only those people who have been involved in this illegal trade," said Telangana Real Estate Developers Association (TREDA) treasurer K Sreedhar Reddy.
Telangana Developers Association president GV Rao also welcomed the move. "It will prove essential for urban development in the State and help in streamlining the city’s growth and urban sprawl," he said.
The previous LRS, however, was only initiated in HMDA limits and municipalities to allow unapproved layouts to get regularised. "Gram Panchayats, on the other hand, had no such opportunity. It would be good if a one-time LRS is initiated for Gram Panchayats as well," said Reddy.
Unapproved layouts are a serious problem in the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) limits, with people selling plots to gullible customers by lying to them that the layout has been approved by the HMDA.
Last year, when the HMDA conducted a special 12-day drive, they identified more than 700 such layouts. Unapproved layouts are high in number especially in Ranga Reddy district, which is home to Hyderabad’s IT corridor. On the HMDA website, there are names of 474 unapproved layouts from the district.