In Bangalore suburbs land scam comes to light
In the past year or so have you registered a site or building on revenue land in Bangalore outskirts? Just ensure the documents are authentic.
In a land-registration racket that has come to light, fraudulent transactions to register properties have been going in many gram panchayats on Bangalore’s periphery using fake assessment register extract (Form 9) and tax demand register extract (Form 11).
Sources point to an alleged nexus between real estate agents and revenue department officials.
TM Vijaya Bhaskar, rural development and panchayat raj principal secretary, said, “After we received complaints, we’ve written to sub-registrar offices to thoroughly verify Forms 9 and 11 before registering any property.”
Sources said in Bangalore at least 5,000 properties were registered with fake forms. This began following the rural development and panchayat raj (RDPR) department in its January 4, 2013 circular directed gram panchayats to restrict distribution of Forms 9 and 11 to genuine property buyers. For registration of new and old residential sites these two extracts are mandatorily sought by sub-registrars, among other documents.
The circular was issued to avoid the mushrooming of illegal layouts and prohibit panchayats from sanctioning building and layout plans in violation of land revenue laws. The department found that under the same registered numbers fake tax extracts were submitted by different panchayats during this period.
Smelling a rat, criminal proceedings against those who submitted fake forms were ordered by the RDPR department.
“Through fraudulent transactions lakhs of rupees have been wrung out of the exchequer in which employees of revenue and panchayat raj offices were involved. The racket about such deals came to light after the RDPR was alerted,” said a senior official instrumental in unearthing the scam.
Source: Times of India
Bangalore, Circular directed gram panchayats, Illegal layouts, Land revenue laws, panchayats, residential sites, Revenue department, Rural development and panchayat raj, Sub-registrars, Tax demand register extract, Vijaya Bhaskar
