Revenue site is a
site that is formed on the agricultural land without proper approval under the
relevant law pertaining to town and country planning and also as per other
provisions of law.
Under the law, no
building shall be constructed on an agricultural land without obtaining
conversion and other approvals from the
concerned authorities..
All around
Bangalore, it is a very common practice for people to buy a piece of
agricultural land, which is more popular as 'revenue site,’ without knowing the
hassles involved in the buying of such sites. Consequently local brokers, aided
by certain landlords also misguide
buyers of revenue sites. So hard earned money of these innocent people goes
down the drain, ruining them forever.
The middlemen and
the local brokers have perfected their profession. This is how they operate. A
nominal sum is paid as token advance to the landlord and a general power of
attorney is obtained; and then, the search for the victim begins. The middle
men, like double edged razors, hike the price of the land and at the same time,
do not properly settle the accounts with the illiterate and ignorant land
owners.
Then, there are
clever entrepreneurs, who consider themselves above law. They form layouts on
agricultural lands without sanction, approval, planning, design etc. To
increase the saleable area of the 'sites', they encroach on roads and as a
result the roads get narrowed down. These layouts are formed without civic
amenities and facilities, since there is no intention of providing them.
However, they know the art of marketing. They make colorful brochures with
photographs of certain parts of structures including 'Vidhana Soudha', Utility
Building, etc., to paint a picture of the property, which a prospective buyer
would like to own, as his 'intelligent investment'. They know that NRIs and
local purchasers are very particular about presentation. Better the
presentation, deeper the deceit, which very few people understand. After the
process, one earns money, and the other bitter experience.
In the recital of a sale deed, it is
customary to mention how the seller has
acquired his title, interests
and rights to the immoveable
property. In case of revenue
sites, the brokers at the office
of various sub- registrars have devised a very ingenious method to hide this fact from the unsuspecting
buyers. They merely advise the I parties
concerned to mention in the recital that the property is the 'ancestral property'
of the seller. In this way the property passes on from one
GPA holder to another GPA holder, till
such time an unlucky person becomes
the owner of such
an 'ancestral property'.
There are several
instances where the land notified for acquisition and the land granted for
schedule cast people have been converted into sites. Then the law stipulates
that certain lands, when granted to the schedule castes, will revert to them if
purchased by anyone else. And there is no guarantee that the money paid for
such lands will be refunded.
Very few people
care to check the legality of the GPA executed by the original vendor. Nobody
bothers to find out whether the GPA is registered or not, whether the executor
of the GPA is alive or not.
All that everyone
is concerned is how to become the owner of the site. Few people realize the
danger when a GPA is revoked. A joint GPA executed by two owners becomes
invalid if one of them dies.
Certain dishonest
and insincere revenue officials to circumvent the law and cheat the government
have devised these transactions. Form no. 10 is for a house coming under
gramthana village panchayat area. Form no. 9 is for a vacant site coming under
gramthana village pancayat area. Originally, a property falling under the
village panchayat area alone has the government site status. The middlemen and
the revenue officials have made bogus forms no.9 and 10 and have registered
immoveable properties in favour of innocent purchasers. Earlier, when the Urban
Land Ceiling Act was in force, hundreds and thousands of revenue sites were
registered by merely mentioning in the sale deed the expression 'one square
asbestos sheet house'. This was mentioned just to avoid getting the relevant
clearance under the said Act. After the Act was abolished the term 'one square
asbestos sheet house' was also removed
from the broker's dictionary.
It is not legal to
form layouts in the agricultural land/green belt area. In such lands, the
record of rights (RTC) will be in the name of the original land owners.
The sites, being
'ancestral proper- ties' of non-existing persons, will be sold by the GPA
holders. The numbers assigned to these sites will never match with the survey
numbers assigned to these lands by the government. The purchaser of the revenue
site doesn't get the title of the property. What is purchased is an 'imaginary
site' only. If, however, the original owner is good then any purchaser can
enjoy the property. In Tamil Nadu, only properties with proper titles are
registered. If the Government of Karnataka makes similar rules, lots of
innocent people will be protected from the onslaught and greed of the middlemen.
If the title deeds
are not clear and marketable, it is difficult to obtain bank loans
for construction by mortgaging
the sites. Generally, these sites are situated on the city out-skirts. There
will be no proper roads, electricity or water supply. There is no scope for
immediate development or occupation. After all this, if the prices of the sites
appreciate over a period of several years, the original landowner will appear
from nowhere and start cultivating the area. He will remove all the demarcating
stones planted by the GPA holder to fool the purchaser. The purchaser will then
find it difficult to identify his property. In certain cases the GPA holder
sells the same sites to several persons and collects money from all of them.
Consequently, marathon litigation awaits him. The laws are so complex that they
give rise to multiple interpretations. To add to his woes, the court fees,
which are very high, drain his already depleted resources. All these are
sufficient for anyone to forget everything and be done with it. Only a fraction
of the deceived purchasers feel that the laws are helpful under such
circumstances. It is hoped that people will exercise utmost care and restraint,
when they go about purchasing 'revenue sites'.
A little caution in
time will save lots of botheration in future. Instead of purchasing a 60 x 40
site a purchaser can as well go for a 20 x 30 site with a clear marketable
title within the city limits. Moreover, all the sites formed in and around
Bangalore must have BDA or BMRDA approval. The buyers, therefore, instead of
wasting their hard earned money on revenue sites and spending sleepless nights,
would rather be wise to consult qualified legal experts before investing their
well earned money.
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