Telangana moves to clear 20,000 applications for prohibited land

Hyderabad: The Telangana government has directed district collectors to take a decision on nearly 20,000 applications seeking removal of land from the prohibited properties list. A target of 45 days has been set.

The applications involve more than 2.20 lakh acres of land across the state. A significant number of the affected property owners are from the Hyderabad metropolitan region, including Rangareddy, Medchal-Malkajgiri, Sangareddy, Yadadri-Bhongir and Vikarabad districts.

The prohibited list prevents certain land and properties from being registered or transferred.

Thousands of property owners affected

The majority of the land parcels were listed as government, assigned, waqf, endowment, Bhoodan or ceiling land. Some properties were also included because of pending court cases. The revenue department has now instructed collectors to examine the pending applications and complete the process within 45 days.

Many property owners reportedly discover the restriction only when they approach revenue authorities for registration or sale of their land.

93 lakh acres on prohibited list

The revenue, registration and stamps departments had undertaken an exercise to revise the prohibited properties list several months ago.

The list is commonly known as Section 22-A properties under the Registration Act. It covers certain categories of land whose registration is restricted.

A Times of India report quoted a senior revenue department official saying that Telangana has about 2.20 crore acres of land. Nearly 93 lakh acres are currently on the prohibited list.

Of this, around 66 lakh acres are forest land, 24 lakh acres are assigned land, about 3.10 lakh acres are waqf and endowment land, and 1.75 lakh acres are ceiling land. The remaining land on the list is private property.