In a move that would provide an opportunity to the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) to sell house sites to interested buyers, the district administration of Sangareddy has pooled in about 500 acres of land from assignees. These lands were already handed over to the HMDA officials.
According to sources, these lands were taken back from the farmers. These assigned lands were disbursed to beneficiaries by the previous Congress and Telugu Desam governments under various schemes. The assignees always have the right to enjoy these lands, but can never monetise them.
Not only that, the government can resume these lands if it feels that they are not being used for the purpose they were assigned for, and may offer some compensation, if it feels so. Usually, compensation would be offered when the land is under cultivation along with other lands near by. If not all, some farmers are not cultivating these lands for the past several years due to various reasons, including lack of irrigation facility.
Using this as a cue, the government officials convinced the assignee farmers to return their lands to the government. They were promised an offer of 600 yards of developed plot by the HMDA, which would take up the responsibility of making a layout and developing the area with all the required infrastructure facilities.
About 500 acres of land was already pooled by the district authorities at Sangareddy district headquarters, neighbouring Kandi mandal headquarters and Jinnaram, an industrial area. The land was handed over to the HMDA authorities about two months ago. However, it is not clear how many plots to what extent would be developed as it is still in primary stage.
“The farmers can get not more than ₹ 6 lakh and ₹10 lakh if we resume land from them. Once they get developed plots, they can sell them anywhere between ₹10,000 and ₹20,000 per square yard depending on the location. This is surely beneficial to the assignees. Though there was some opposition at the beginning at Jinnaram due to misconception, it fizzled out ,” said a revenue official on condition of anonymity.
