Kochi: Building a lovely house is a dream come true, but you are in for a nightmare if authorities won't let you live there by withholding mandatory papers or permits. Thousands of people in Kerala are likely left in the lurch after a significant change in land laws has prevented them from getting the building number even though the permit was given for constructing the house initially. Some of them have not been able to stay at their newly constructed houses for four years.
People who have submitted application for changing the land classification so that they can build a house there are also waiting for a long while to get the property certification from the local revenue authorities.
How the issue arose
Earlier, people were allowed to go ahead with the construction even if the land has been marked as field in official documents. (Such applicants included both landless and houseless.) The earlier Land Utilisation Act allowed for that leeway for those who owned 10 cents in panchayat and five cents in urban areas. By the time, the house construction was completed using this permit, the law underwent a change and the new Kerala Conservation of Wetland and Paddy Land Act came into effect.
All the houses that were earlier given permits have to abide by the new law. However, those who have built houses as per the norms of the Land Utilisation Act are not being given the completion certificate, hence they are denied building numbers. This has further pushed the people on to a corner as they are not even given the last instalment of the bank loan.
Moreover, fresh applicants are not given permission for construction as per the new Conservation of Wetland and Paddy Land Act.
After an ordinance to amend the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act was passed in 2017, the permits granted as per the earlier Act were stopped. It took six months for the Legislative Assembly to discuss and pass the ordinance into a law. From January 1, 2019, only applications as per the new law are being accepted.
With the new law, if the land has been marked as field in the data bank, application has to be given to change it in order to secure building number. Even though applications were given to Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO), these have been reportedly delayed citing various reasons.
However, the applicants are being turned back with excuses such as uncertainty over the norms, the fair value of the land is not final and so on. The officers, on their part, are apprehensive if their service or promotion would be affected if the permit is questioned in court.
As is the norm across the country, if the usage of land is changed, its classification in village or town records also needs to be changed. If the landowner later uses one's field for residential or commercial activities, official land reclassification is a must for securing the requisite nods or documents.
Reclassification of land
For changing the classification of the land as per the new Act, 10 to 30 per cent of the fair value set by the government has to be given as fee. (In cities it is 10 per cent, 20 per cent in municipalities, and 30 per cent in panchayats). As there has been a 60 per cent hike in the fair value, this is no meagre sum for a landowner seeking to reclassifying the property.
If the building has more than 3,000 sq feet of area, Rs 100 per sq feet would be levied as fine.
