Laws that prohibit building houses must change

In the old days, farmland was more valuable than homestead. Farming was widespread in the state at that time. Therefore, most of the land was recorded as farmland in documents and land tax receipts. Today, homestead is the most valuable. Farmland has lost its value. There is no demand for it. Farming has also decreased. Many properties in the city area are recorded as farmland. If it is included in the data bank and the wetland area, those who want to build a house there have to go through many procedures. Permission must be obtained from the agriculture department to get it removed from the data bank. Later, an application must be submitted to the village office to change the classification of the land. The village officer must visit the place in person and give in writing that the land is no longer suitable for cultivation and therefore the land type can be changed.

This will then go to the taluk office. A surveyor should come from there, measure the land, draw a map and submit it. Only when these documents come back to the village office from there, will the land be recorded in the Thandaper register and the land will become a homestead. Most people only learn about this when they set out to build a house. The laws in the state are such that they confirm the old saying that a person starts building a house in his worst time of life. There are middlemen to do all this. It costs a lot of money. More than half of this goes to bribe officials. The majority of the pending applications are from people who have set out to convert their land on their own without any middlemen. The laws should allow people to build houses on their own land, not prevent it.

The Chief Minister's announcement in the Assembly that local self-government bodies should issue time-bound permission to families who do not have their own houses to build houses on land included in the data bank or wetland limits and that officials who fail to do so will face action will come as a relief to tens of thousands of applicants. Although this concession has been in effect since 2008, when the data bank came into effect, the people are not getting its benefits. The concession is 10 cents in the gram panchayat and five cents in the city. According to the amendment made in 2018, if the area of ​​farmland not included in the data bank is within 10 cents, then land conversion is not required for the construction of a house with an area of ​​1291.67 square feet.

The Chief Minister has said that he will ensure that the land recorded as farmland in the BTR will not be an obstacle to granting permits for the construction of houses in such applications. Land conversion is not required for the construction of commercial buildings with an area of ​​up to 430.56 square feet on land up to five cents. A certificate stating that the specific land is not included in the data bank must be submitted to the concerned local body secretary along with the building construction application. These benefits are for those who do not have other land in their own district. This is not an official system that changes just by the Chief Minister's statement. The current situation is unlikely to change unless action is taken against the officials who make lapse in these matters. Action should be taken to eliminate such laws that prohibit building houses as well.