The Andhra Pradesh state’s Directorate of Town & Country Planning (DTCP) has put the registration of more than 19,000 illegal layouts on hold in the state. All these illegal layouts which were put on hold have been declared as ‘illegal layouts’ as they laid out without following the issued guidelines & without acquiring the necessary clearances, this means that the transactions of more than 19,000 plots which include layouts located in both rural & urban areas were stalled as the registration of the layouts cannot go through without the state govt.’s approval.

The total area of land marked as these illegal layouts is said to exceed 1 lakh acres. The state government announced that it would allow registrations only after payment of regulatory fees & if the necessary corrections are made to the illegal layouts to adhere to the prescribed rules. The town & country planning department of the state has circulated the details of the unauthorized layouts to the offices of the registration & stamps department to ensure the registration of these illegal layouts is stalled.

The commissioner of the registration & stamps department had recently issued a circular which was a directive to immediately cease registrations in unauthorized layouts due to which there was widespread confusion in the state. Many buyers in the state who had already purchased property in the unauthorized layouts were worried after the sudden halt for registration of these illegal layouts, their transactions were stopped mid-way with no certainty about them getting their property or their investment back.The state govt. clarified that the registrations will continue for plots in layouts which were purchased before the cut-off date i.e., 7^th January 2020. The builders & developers in AP said they were not happy with the decision of the government to stop registrations for all these illegal layouts. The builders & developers complained that the guidelines issued were unclear and confusing to implement for small & medium sized projects. The state govt. has said that the rules prescribed for these layouts were decided to ensure better development & for future proofing of the layouts and that registrations won’t be permitted unless the development guidelines were adhered to.