Telangana’s new scheme offers another opportunity to regularise layouts

The Telangana government has announced a new Layout Regularisation Scheme which offers an opportunity for people to regularise unauthorised layouts and plots that have been sold and registered.

Various unauthorised layouts which have come up in the urban areas and plots that have been registered through sale deed with cut off date of August 26, 2020 are now eligible to have them regularised under the scheme.

According to the Government Order issued by Telangana Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, the last date for receiving applications under the scheme is October 15, 2020, wherein applicants have to pay a fee of ₹1,000 for registration of land and ₹10,000 for developers of layouts.

While the government is promoting planned, sustainable development of both in urban and rural areas, there are still many unapproved and illegal layouts and such unauthorised layouts. Due to their deficiencies in infrastructure, it puts extra pressure on the local bodies and the plot owners in such layouts to a great inconvenience.

Such substandard and unapproved sub-divisions of plots defeat the very objective of planned development and severely affect the planned extension of services and amenities by the local bodies.

In order to ensure that planned sustainable development takes place in all such unapproved layouts, no registration of plots will be permitted henceforth in such unapproved/unauthorised/illegal layouts, said the order. “To bring all these unplanned/unapproved/ unauthorised layouts into the fold of planned sustainable development and to provide basic facilities in these areas and a better quality of life for the plot owners in these layouts and in the nearby areas, the government has issued new Rules for Regularisation of Unapproved and Illegal Layouts in the State of Telangana for both rural and urban areas,” it added.

Wide cover

These rules shall be applicable to entire Telangana covering Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority, all urban development authorities, all municipal corporations, all municipalities and all gram panchayats. “These rules and conditions herein shall be applicable to all existing unapproved sub-division of plots, existing unapproved layouts or ventures promoted by land owners/private developers/firms/companies/property developers/societies,” said the order.

These rules are only intended for regulating the unplanned development and shall be applicable to all unapproved layout areas which have clearance from the competent authorities under the Urban Land Ceiling and Regulation Act 1976, Telangana Land Reforms (Ceiling on Agricultural Holdings) Act, 1973 wherever required and which have not been entered in the Prohibitory Register of lands maintained by the Revenue Department.

The regularisation measure would not absolve the plots or layout from the application of land ceiling laws, land disputes or claims over title, boundary disputes, etc. In respect of assigned lands, prior clearance from the District Collector shall be obtained.

The scheme has guidelines against regularisation of layouts that have come up in river or lake bed and other restricted buffer zones.