Telangana Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy has described the ongoing Section 22-A prohibited-land controversy as largely a legacy problem inherited from previous governments and rejected opposition claims of any undue increase in the list of restricted properties.
Speaking during a short discussion in the Telangana Legislative Assembly on September 12, 2026, the minister placed official records, registration data and video evidence before the House. He stated that the Section 22-A system under the Registration Act has existed since 2007 in the undivided Andhra Pradesh and was continued throughout the decade of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) rule.
We inherited the 22-A list from the BRS, which is now surprisingly making a hue and cry,” Ponguleti said. He informed the House that the total extent of land under the prohibited list stood at 1,02,52,690 acres when the Congress government assumed office on December 7, 2023. By August 31, 2026, the figure had come down to 1,02,05,250 acres — a reduction of 47,440 acres
The minister attributed recent difficulties faced by property owners to inconsistencies in older land records that surfaced when the data was digitised and published online in December 2025 in compliance with High Court directions. He said the government had since corrected many of those errors.
Rejecting claims that the 22-A issue had hurt registration activity, Ponguleti pointed out that registration revenue rose from ₹6,216 crore between April and August 2025 to ₹7,575 crore in the corresponding period of 2026 — an increase of about ₹1,359 crore
Section 22-A of the Registration Act allows the government to maintain a list of properties that cannot be registered, primarily to protect government, assigned, forest, endowment and other public lands from being transferred into private hands. In recent months, technical errors during the update of the list (linked to the shift from the earlier Dharani system to the Bhu Bharati portal) led to genuine private properties — especially in the Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy, Medchal-Malkajgiri and Sangareddy districts — being wrongly flagged, temporarily blocking sales, mortgages and new constructions.
The minister earlier apologised for the inconvenience caused to genuine landowners and announced a toll-free helpline along with fast-track mechanisms to review and clear eligible cases. He maintained that the government’s objective remains the protection of public land while ensuring that rightful private owners are not harassed.
Opposition parties, particularly the BRS and BJP, have strongly criticised the handling of the list, alleging large-scale wrongful inclusions and demanding accountability. The minister countered by presenting data and alleging that irregularities in land records had also occurred under the previous regime.
