Scores of people who have been residing in leased properties since decades can now claim their right on the property as thousands of properties which fall under the b-tenure category of land records will now be made freehold.
District collector Daulat Desai has ordered the transfer of b-tenure (category II) properties to c-tenure (category III).
There are three categories of properties in the land revenue department — A, B & C. According to the A category, leased properties are under the complete ownership of the government while those falling in the B category bracket, properties are leased to the occupants on the condition that the lessee cannot develop or sell it without the permission of the government. In the C category, the owner has the sole right of the property.
Under this new move, the properties which were leased decades ago will now be completely owned by the lessee. According to the primary estimates, there are over 11,000 such properties in the city. However, the district administration has received around 6,000 applications claiming that the properties have been mistakenly included in the b-tenure category of the land revenue records.
“Because of b-tenure category, people residing in those properties are facing several difficulties. Also, there were corruption-related complaints for transferring property rights to c-tenure. Now, I have ordered the block officers and tehsildars to set up teams and scrutinise the applications and get the titles cleared,” Desai said.
At present, around 1,000 properties in the b-tenure category have been transferred to the c-tenure category, officials of the revenue department have said. City-based developers have demanded the transfer of ownership rights stating that several restrictions to develop or re-develop such properties have affected the real estate sector.
Last month, the developers had submitted a petition seeking change in land title. Desai had assured them that decision over the long-pending issue will be taken soon. The Maharashtra Land Revenue Code has vested the authority to change the land ownership category in the district collectors.
According to some officials, most of the land leased decades ago has been developed into housing societies. The tenants of the housing societies are facing restrictions when it comes to selling their properties.
A senior revenue official said that, in 2018, the law to provide freehold of the property to the owner by providing one-time fee was amended. He said that the transfer of ownership category will also help boost revenue generation.