'The Great Sale Deed Scam Of Hyderabad Municipal Corporation'

A major scam has come to light in the mortgaging of sale deeds in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). Luckily, it was detected before any major damage could be done, said officials, but added that a probe is underway to track the culprits behind the scam. 
    
The scam involved mortgaging of sale deeds in the name of local GHMC officials instead of the mandatory commissioner. By doing so, the local official can release the building permission of a particular builder at his whim without the latter fulfilling all the obligations. 
    
The scam came to light during an inspection by GHMC officials at the Kapra circle following allegations of corruption by some local civic officials. It was found that 10 mortgaged property documents were registered in the name of the then assistant city planner R Suresh Chandra Reddy and deputy municipal commissioner R Upender Reddy. 
    

As per rules, the property should be mortgaged to the GHMC commissioner not by name but only by designation. Generally, any builder or owner has to mortgage either 10% or one floor of the building to obtain building permissions for ground + 2 floors and above. This mortgage rule came into effect in 2006 to deter builders from deviating from the building rules and constructing unauthorised floors. The mortgaged portion is released only after the building is constructed as per the norms and the occupancy certificate is issued. 
    
By mortgaging the property in the name of local officials, the builder can carry out many deviations and still get the building permission as they are hand in glove. For instance, a document (No. 68/ 2013) was registered in the name of R Upender Reddy s/o Chandra Reddy, the then deputy municipal commissioner, at Kapra sub-registrar office on January 5, 2013 for giving building permission to S Santosh Kumar and S Saudamini where 10% of the plinth area was mortgaged. 
    
Similarly, about half a dozen mortgage documents were registered including a document (No. 3870/2012) executed by Anisetty Jayashri in the name of R Suresh Chandra Reddy s/o Ranga Reddy resident of West Marredpally, claiming to be a representative of the GHMC commissioner. The 10% of the property in Palle Enclave in Kapra village was mortgaged on November 26, 2012. Another property belonging to K Anantha Lakshmi was also registered (mortgage) in the name of Suresh Chandra Reddy in November, 2012. 
    

Officials suspect the documents were made to favour the builders though there were unauthorized constructions and deviations in the buildings. While the former assistant city planner reportedly blamed the new software given to sub-registrar offices for the problem, while deputy municipal commissioner reportedly that he had rejected the mortgaged documents on seeing his name and the documents were rectified immediately. However, officials are not ready to buy their defence. After the issue was unearthed in Kapra circle, the officials reportedly directed the town planning officials to conduct checks in all the municipal circles whether mortgaged documents were issued in the name of local GHMC officials. 
    
When contacted GHMC chief city planner GV Raghu said the mortgage deeds should be done in the name of commissioner but not on individual names. But nobody brought the issue to his notice, he said. “We will probe the issue and if the mortgages were done on individuals names that would be rectified. Action would be taken against such officials,” the chief city planner said. Incidentally, the two officials in Kapra circle where the scam was detected had been transferred out by the GHMC commissioner only two weeks ago on corruption charges.