Kerala Tips

Village offices in Kerala are well known for corruption. A number of certificates are issued from village offices (income certificate, nativity certificate etc.) and invariably bribe is required to get them. Some may argue that you can still get the certificates without bribe, but that will require 3 or more village office visits!

Historically village officers had limited power. For most of the services we had to go to the taluk office. But recently village officers were given more power and that lead to a surge in corruption, fraud and cheating.

Another problem is that retired village officials (who has no official power) roam inside the village offices as if they are the boss. They are part of the fraud gangs and in turn alter the records kept at the office.

The cheating and fraud reached such a stage that massive alterations in village office records were found. Using the altered records, the land was registered to another person without the knowledge of the original owner. As the land prices soared this turned out to be a profitable business with minimal risk. All you need is a set of goondas with you!

The exact modus operandi of this mafia is this,

1. Find a out a good piece of vacant land which can fetch you good money. Ask the owner if he wants to sell the land. If no look for another land.

2. Give a very good offer to the owner. Ask him for photo stats of land documents. This will give you complete details about the land.

3. Now get out of the deal. Bribe the village officials to get the village record altered. You will have to bribe guys in registrar office also.

4. Register the land in the name of someone you know. Then after a month sell the land to a third party.

5. By the time the original owner knows about the fraud, the land would have changed many hands!

The government officials who participated in this fraud are completely safe. The real fight happens between the original owner and the latest guy who got it registered. Legally the latest guy has no rights over the land.

There is little that common man can do to protect his land. But still some of the following steps can be useful to protect your land,

1. Pay yearly tax on time. This is important since majority of land chosen for fraud are those for which has tax payment defaults.

2. Ask the neighbours near your land to report any suspicious activity such as land inspection by third parties.

3. If you are an NRI, get someone whom you can trust to take care of your land. You need to visit your land area at least once in a month.

Politicians are behind the large scale land frauds which involves government land. In Malayalam there is a saying - "Veli thanne vilavu thinnuka".

Now government is bringing a lot of new laws and rules to prevent land fraud. As you can guess, more laws mean more bribe and more corruption. One of the provisions planned is that for land transaction,you need to get permission from the local politician!!!

I think now even God cannot save Malayalees…..

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