Hyderabad: Lakhs of acres of private land has been incorporated under section 22-A of the Prohibited Properties List of the Indian Registration Act, barring genuine owners from registration of their properties, owing to official apathy.Revenue officials, who are supposed to update the records, have failed to do so, causing hardships to the lakhs of property owners. Revenue minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, who reviewed the prohibited properties issue, admitted that grave mistakes were done by officials, and listed out the reasons for them, while mentioning categories of lands in the prohibition list.Over the past decades, the state govt has regularised lands under urban land ceiling by collecting some amounts, but these parcels are still being shown as govt land. The second category is of the lands auctioned by govt since 2004-05, especially in and around Hyderabad. Though these parcels were registered in the name of the buyers through hard copies, they were not uploaded on the registration and land portal, resulting in them being shown as govt land.The third category was land acquisitions for various purposes by the state govt. Though part of a particular survey was acquired for a project, the revenue authorities have put entire survey number as govt land, prohibiting the rest of the land from registration. The other category is Bhoodan land, where part of the land was donated to the govt, but entire land in the survey is shown as govt land.Revenue minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, giving examples on the issue, said that in places such as Allwyn Colony, Asbestos Colony and Narapally (survey no. 867), there are private and govt lands. But revenue authorities have incorporated entire survey numbers as govt land. “In survey no. 867, Narapally in Medchal district, govt land was just 20 acres and remaining is private land,” the minister said.He said in that Ranga Reddy district, one person had donated two acres of 12 acres owned by him to the govt, but the entire 12 acres is in section 22A as the donated land was not demarcated till now. “Wherever govt and private issues are there, it will be demarcated with geo-coordinates and maps,” Ponguleti said.The minister said HMDA and other agencies such as TGIIC and Telangana Housing Board have auctioned thousands of acres of govt land in the past few decades, which will also be resolved. On Jubilee Hills society issue, he said about 350 to 360 plots were regularised by the govt and the memos and orders were not uploaded, which had created a problem now.“Both revenue and registration departments will set up a committee and review issues case-by-case and resolve them. People need not panic,” the revenue minister said.Properties on Paigah land from Nizam era will be registered:The minister announced the govt will allow registrations in Civil Suit 14 and Civil Suit 7, popularly known as CS 14 and CS 7 areas, where apartments and other developments have come up. He said that though they are under prohibited list, and a case is going on in the Supreme Court, conditional registration will be allowed subject to the outcome of the court order.Mapping each property is permanent solution:Giving some solutions on the existing issue of 22A, Ch V Subba Rao, former joint director of survey and settlement department, said the long-term solution to avoid the problem is to have accurate and modern Land Parcel Map (LPM) for each property, statutory Right of Records (RoR) to be prepared for govt, and non-agricultural lands also. “For that RoR Act has to be amended. Even for dealing with prohibited issues, an independent authority — additional district judge or retired high court judge acting as a Tribunal — to notify and de-notify prohibited lands and there should be provision for an appeal, which are missing now,” Rao said.The problem is that the rules 238 to 241 of Telangana Registration Rules, 2016, issued under Section 22A of the Registration Act 1908, do not provide for publication of draft list and disposal of objections as in RoR Act, he said.“While the process of preparation and notification of lists of prohibited properties is going on, public should be cautioned against potential risk in buying properties, which were there in the annulled list. Buyer may be required to give an undertaking that he is aware that the property was in the prohibited list previously and that he will not get any right if the property is eventually found to attract 22A,” Subba Rao said.
