22A Land Reforms To Free Thousands Of Properties From Prohibited List
The minister announced that assigned lands granted before June 18, 1954, legally auctioned temple and Waqf lands, village service inam lands, conditional patta lands, old unapproved layouts and APSFC auctioned lands would be removed from the 22A list.
VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh government on Wednesday unveiled sweeping reforms to the 22A prohibited lands regime, promising to simplify the removal of properties from the prohibited list, safeguard land rights and enhance transparency in land administration.
Revenue, registration and stamps minister Anagani Satya Prasad said the new government orders would end hardships faced by thousands of farmers and landowners whose properties were wrongly included in the 22A list due to irregularities during the previous YSRC government.
He said all earlier circulars had been withdrawn, manual entries in land records abolished and Webland 2.0 made the sole platform for agricultural land records.
The inspector general of registration and stamps will maintain the only centralised database of prohibited properties.
The minister announced that assigned lands granted before June 18, 1954, legally auctioned temple and Waqf lands, village service inam lands, conditional patta lands, old unapproved layouts and APSFC auctioned lands would be removed from the 22A list.
Gramakantam lands, he said, would never be included.
He said only the government could notify large properties as prohibited and clarified that the burden of proving a property belongs to the government would rest with the government, not citizens. Before any inclusion in the 22A list, authorities must issue prior notice, allow 30 days for objections and 14 days for legal submissions, and pass a reasoned order.
Powers to add or delete lands have been restricted to Sub-Collectors and RDOs, with appeals to the joint collector and the government.
Rejecting allegations of privatisation of sub-registrar offices, Satya Prasad said the PPP model covered only infrastructure in 26 pilot offices, while all registration and statutory powers would remain with government sub-registrars.
He also promised protection of document writers' livelihoods, alleged the previous government had unsuccessfully attempted to outsource registration service centres to a private company, and defended the ongoing resurvey, saying the government had allotted over 200 days to ensure accuracy.