SOURCE :- SIASAT NEWS
Hyderabad: Telangana Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy on Monday, August 24, rejected claims that lakhs of acres had been wrongly added to the state’s Section 22A prohibited property list, calling it a misleading Opposition campaign, and said 98 per cent of registrations sought under the provision had already been cleared.
Addressing a press conference at the Secretariat, Ponguleti said the government was placing complete, category-wise records before the public showing the status of land in the prohibited list as of December 2023, when the previous government left office, against the position now.
He said the government would explain with records how much land was involved and why, rather than face vague allegations, adding that the purpose of Section 22A was to stop government land and public assets from being diverted for private or real estate benefit.
Ponguleti cites specific land disputes
As examples, the minister cited about 522 acre of government land in Medak’s Narsapur constituency allegedly diverted to private individuals before being flagged, a case in Sangareddy’s Pothireddypally village where land rights were created by falsely claiming pre-1958 assignment and Hyderabad’s Jubilee Hills Survey no 403, where only two of 1,280 acre are actually under restriction, an earlier upload error that briefly flagged the entire survey number, including the Chief Minister’s residence, before being corrected.
He also cited a case in Sangareddy’s Annaram village where construction on government land was carried out using permissions obtained under an adjoining private survey number. “If government land is built upon using a private survey number’s permissions, should that land not be placed under Section 22A? Protecting government land is our responsibility,” he said.
The minister said fake government orders (GO), bogus memos and forged official signatures were being used to seek registration of government land, and that first information (FIR) had been ordered wherever such fraud was detected.
980 complaints, refunds promised
Ponguleti said the toll-free number for Section 22A grievances had received 1,162 calls, of which 980 were distinct complaints, 547 relating to agricultural land and 433 non-agricultural. Only 12 to 13 of over 300 relaxed cases had been rejected, he said, adding that fees paid by those unable to complete registration would be refunded within the week and genuine grievances resolved within 24 to 36 hours under a fast-track system.
He also said the government would soon take a policy decision on the Urban Land Ceiling Act and would order a special investigation team (SIT) probe into a 2017 land case involving 811 acre if the principal Opposition sought it.
“Frightening people is not our policy… but we will not allow false propaganda to alarm them,” Ponguleti said.
SOURCE : SIASAT
