Revenue Minister Under Fire for 22A Bungling

Hyderabad: Increasing instances of dubious decisions in revenue matters, including the latest inclusion of thousands of private properties in the prohibitory list under Section 22A, have left the state government in an embarrassing situation, both on the administrative and the political fronts.

Revenue minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, who had to cut a sorry figure following the huge public outcry over shifting of properties to the prohibitory list, offered his apologies for the Section 22A goof-up and blamed the official machinery, but the Opposition, on the other hand demanded minister’s resignation. “It is not the revenue ministry anymore. It has become the robbery ministry,” said BJP Assembly floor leader A. Maheshwar Reddy at a press conference here on Tuesday. Properties worth Rs 1 lakh crore were included in the prohibitory list, he alleged.

Following public outrage, senior BRS leader and former minister T. Harish Rao went on a whirlwind visit to the colonies, where buildings constructed decades ago were included in the prohibitory list. He addressed street corner meetings with the property owners and demanded an independent inquiry into the fiasco.

The 22A controversy took a new turn with none other than Srinivas Reddy’s Cabinet colleague and roads and buildings minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy weighing in. Suspecting foul play to defame the government, Venkat Reddy wanted the Chief Minister to get the issue thoroughly probed. He, however, gave credence to the allegation of bungling, declaring that he had alerted the authorities about including 42,000 acres of land in the prohibitory list in Yadadri district alone four months ago.

“There are serious complaints that landowners were being asked for a substantial share of land or development rights to have their properties removed from 22A. The minister has said that it is an administrative lapse. In any case, Ponguleti should quit voluntarily, or the Chief Minister should remove him from the Cabinet,” Harish Rao said. While demanding that genuine property owners should not be put to trouble, he also warned the government against removing encroached and disputed land parcels from under the 22A prohibitory list under the guise of resolving the issue.

Official sources told Deccan Chronicle that the origin for the massive inclusion of properties under Section 22A was pressure from a powerful minister to selectively include certain properties in the prohibitory list as part of the arm-twisting tactics to snatch property development projects. In some cases, the officials took a decision on their own, apparently to fleece the landowners and developers or individual property owners. In a few cases, however, the officials quietly forwarded the previous lists dating back to the 1950s and the 1960s without applying their minds.

The revenue department came under fire for including properties for which the successive governments issued regularisation proceedings and no-objection certificates to raise structures. Sources said Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy was thoroughly upset over the bungling and directed Minister Srinivas Reddy to resolve the issue at the earliest.