Hyderabad: In a move that could trigger a major political controversy, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Tuesday gave his nod for regularisation of government lands under encroachment, particularly in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad.

The Chief Minister said that the regularisation should be done as per the resolution passed in the State Assembly and decisions taken during the All Party meetings held later. He directed the officials to frame guidelines for regularisation in the most transparent manner.

The decision was taken during a review meeting held at the State Secretariat on Tuesday. Deputy Chief Minister Mahmood Ali, Parliamentary Secretary Srinivas Goud, Rajya Sabha MP K Keshava Rao, Chief Secretary Dr Rajiv Sharma, CMO Seretary S Narsing Rao, Advocate General Ramakrishna Reddy, Law Department Secretary Santosh Reddy, Revenue Secretary Meena, Ranga Reddy Collector Sridhar and CCLP Special Commissioner G D Aruna were present in the meeting. The Chief Minister directed that all encroachments should be regularised in the name of women within three months. Further, all applications should be cleared within 20 days of their receipt.

The Chief Minister said that those illegally possessing up to 125 sq yards of land and having income below Rs 2 lakh should be regularised at free of cost after thorough verification. Those occupying between 125-250 sq yards will have to pay 50 per cent of registration value while those under possession of land from 250-500 sq yards will have to pay 75 per cent of land value. The encroachers on above 500 sq ft of land will have to pay 100 per cent registration value for regularisation.

The regularisation will be done for the encroachments done before June 2, 2014. The applicants have been asked to pay 25% of the regularisation cost at the time of submitting applications.

The Chief Minister also directed the District Collectors to prepare of list of encroachments on government lands in all districts so as to start a similar regularisation drive in those districts.