The Cabinet, which met in Vijayawada on Saturday, discussed the Simhachalam lands issue and decided to go as per the High Court order of 2008 on this issue. It may be recalled that the Simhachalam Devasthanam has filed an affidavit in High Court in 2008 that 12,149 structural encroachments have been identified on 419 acres on that date.
The Cabinet has now decided to regularise the structural encroachments existed as on 2008 as enumerated by devasthanam. The stand taken by the government will be submitted to the High Court in an affidavit and seek permission for regularisation, according to a press release from the district administration.
The State cabinet also categorised the structural encroachments in three categories. As per this the first category will be encroachments of 0-60 square yards and the land falling under this category would be regularised free of cost up to 60 square yards. There are 1665 encroachments under this category which are 13.78 per cent of total encroachments.
The second category will be encroachments between 61 and 300 square yards and there are 9,366 of them, accounting for 77.51 per cent of the total encroachments. For regularisation of lands of this category, 70 per cent of basic value of the land as on 1998 will be calculated and 9 per cent interest would be added to this amount. Encroachments of above 300 square yards will come under third category. No amount would be collected for the first 60 sq. yards and from 61 sq. yards to 300 sq. yards the second category norms will be applied. For area more than 300 sq. yards the fees will be collected as per the present basic value.
