I have sent a reply to you. There are some members of MGP who should be able to give you guidance. Mag-Gen Karumbaiah is one such MGP member who is familiar with these formalities. There are others.

Please contact MGP office 0821 2515150 to get contact nunbers of MGP members.

Welcome to Mysore and Join the jasmine revolution!

I deliberated for a long time regarding the sort of location which would fit my needs and the challenges of being away from urban conveniences. Judging from current parameters, in the suburbs of Mysore one would get a plot in a layout for about Rs400 a sq ft., so by the time you have a dwelling unit on it, the costs would be probably about Rs.18 lakhs or so, If one moved out about 25 km out of town and about 2 km or more off the main road, it would probably be possible to create a "commune" of a few like minded people, who are more concerned about preserving a quality of life and integrating with the relatively smaller local communities , rather than worrying about  the rise in property prices etc. So a larger tract of land, and distinguish between private spaces, shared spaces and community spaces, and some shared facilities. If one could make a meaningful contribution to the local communities through shared skill sets, it would be ideal.

The current challenge seems to be of checking documents of title deeds, ensuring authenticity, getting permissions to acquire agricultural land without having to make false claims of being a farmer.

Anyway, this has now become a mission and I have to make it work, so any help would be appreciated.

A decade back in Bangalore, I came across a group of families from Andra Pradesh, who went on to buy a huge corner property through the auction in Koramangala, and within one year they constructed flats for themselves. This group pooled in all the resources they had bought the property and even constructed flats. Now they are proud owners of flats built according to their taste!!

Is that what Mr. Prem is looking for?

Instead of producing false agricultural background, Mr. Prem could buy an alienated property and solve the problem. But the price he pays is high when compared to an agricultural land. Its just my suggestion..

Now for living away from city, even if you buy agricultural property with false claim, you only have to cultivate or get it alienated to industrial or commercial purpose.

My advice would be to form a group of like minded people form an association and then go about purchasing alienated land. Get the necessary approvals from the Govt to build houses. I think there is a norm with the urban development of housing board that - 'x' % for housing, 'y' % for roads & 'z' % towards civic amenities like park etc has to be planned.,

I wouldn't want to disappoint .. the wish to make it to Mysore depends on the above factors. So please do be very cautious while dealing with such things.

You need to be well informed !!, Mr. Nagakumar of Premier Residency? is that you Mr. Nagakumar, if its him then he will be of great help to you! Mr. Prem.

Thank you for all the responses and individual mails.A special thanks to Mr.GVK for opening up this forum for me.I have been adviced that agricultural land can be acquired by giving an undertaking to the District Commissioner not to alter the land status and to build no more than 5% as permissible for agricultural plots.The intention is not to create a fortified gated community as most "farm" houses tend to be with manicured landscaped gardens to indulge in  the pastimes of the wealthy.I hesitated from using the word commune originally as it conjures certain images in the mind.I guess "alternate Homestead" would be a more apt definition.At the moment we are a loose cluster of 5/6 people from varying backgrounds....Tourism,Education,IT,Advertising,Retiree and Wellness looking to have a tract of land with a core area   we would develop initially to have 5 living units and mainly shared spaces,and evolving an alternate place to stay full time.We are not evangelists,crusaders,missionaries....just urban folk wanting to learn and make an alternate contribution if possible.So we are approaching this with humility and openness.

I hope it will not be too long before we get there!I will be calling the contacts suggested and thank you again,

Prem