3,000 acres under govt scanner in Hyd

The Andhra Pradesh government has identified at least 3,000 acres of surplus lands in cities like Hyderabad and Vijayawada to take them over from landowners before repealing the Urban Land Ceiling (ULC) Act.

According to highly placed sources, the state government, under pressure from the Government of India to repeal the Act, has undertaken the exercise of identifying lands to be taken over under the provisions of the Act before scrapping it.

Sources said the government, after coming to know of certain clauses in the Act that empower it to take over the surplus land in these places, had immediately embarked on the process of identifying such lands.

It may be recalled that the government chose land as an important source of revenue after it was unable to increase tax revenues or go in for more borrowings to meet its plan expenditure proposed in the annual budget.

Though the government resisted the earlier attempts to do away with the ULC Act, the Centre's latest move against the 1976 legislation forced it to change the stance.

While confirming that it was just a matter of time before it made announcement in this regard, sources said the government was also keen to get hold of lands in big cities to meet its requirements before the Act was scrapped.

Cities like Hyderbad, Warangal, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam have been classified under the Act, which makes people in each of these cities eligible to retain a certain amount of land depending upon the classification.

At present, many landowners, who have excess lands in their possession over the limits of the Act in big cities like Hyderabad, have been retaining them under the guise of agriculture and horticulture. It is, however, not clear whether the government is also eying these type of lands. Andhra is among the few states in the country where the Urban Land Ceiling Act is still in force.

Meanwhile, sources said the state government was also planning to continue raising the market value of urban lands in line with the actual market rates. However, the measure would not augment the coffers of the government, which is planning to reduce the registration fee to 5 per cent of the property value from the present 9 per cent.

Government sources added that 12 townships have been planned alongside the outer ring road (ORR) project around Hyderabad, affordable to middle and lower income groups as well.