Hyderabad: Just weeks after the Telangana High Court pulled up the government and statutory body Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA) for its alleged unauthorised entry into private properties, yet another full-blown land ownership crisis has emerged in Hyderabad.
What has sparked massive public distress this time around is large-scale administrative errors resulting in thousands of acres of private properties being categorised as public land and under section 22A land.
Section 22 A of the Registration Act, 1908 restricts transactions involving government, assigned, endowment, Waqf and surplus land, as well as properties under legal dispute.
The state revenue department, which purportedly undertook an updation exercise in April, reportedly placed nearly 90 lakh private, legitimate properties under the Prohibited Properties List (POB/Section 22A), halting real estate transactions, blocking sales, and preventing mortgages and transfers.
The property updation exercise was undertaken because the Revanth Reddy-led Congress government in Telangana was replacing the old Dharani land registry portal with its new Bhu Bharati portal.
The Section 22A issue, which came to light in early August, rapidly escalated after thousands of property owners began receiving notices from the revenue authorities, stating that their apartments or houses were placed under Section 22A. In other cases, buyers or sellers were confronted with a “rejected” certificate when they went to register their property at the sub-registrar’s office in Hyderabad and surrounding districts.
The impact of this is severe, with the problem reportedly pronounced in four of Hyderabad city’s districts—Medchal-Malkajgiri, Sangareddy, Rangareddy, and Hyderabad districts—which is estimated to account for more than 54 percent of the properties listed under Section 22-A statewide.
More than 750 applications are pending for removal of property from erroneously being included in the Prohibited list, with a significant number of them in the plush Jubilee Hills and Banjara Hills areas where ministers, industrialists, and entrepreneurs live.
With public anger and distress rising over the past few days,state Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas said on Monday that the issue arose because his department officials sent old, unverified lists to sub-registrars without filtering out lands that were regularised previously or converted nearly 18 years ago after the Urban Land Ceiling Act was amended in 2008.
The then Andhra Pradesh government officially adopted and brought into force the central Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Repeal Act, 1999 in 2008, replacing and repealing the older Act of 1976.
The state then issued fresh policy guidelines to regularise surplus lands already in possession of third-party occupants or original landowners by charging specific slab rates and settling pending cases.
Also Read: Telangana HC orders removal of HYDRAA chief for repeat violations of court order, no apology
Political crisis and the government’s response
Given the panic among owners and the real estate community, Revenue Minister Srinivas called a meeting late on Monday with the Principal Secretary (Revenue), Commissioner (Registration and Stamps Department), and the collectors of the four districts in the Greater Hyderabad and surrounding regions.
Admitting that the “mess” was created because of an error made by his department, the minister said, “Give us two days to resolve the issues. Most of the complaints raised by the owners are genuine, and this mistake has occurred because we could not remove the legitimate patta lands from the list. All the GOs, memos, and proceedings are being uploaded now for everyone to see.”
The minister also publicly acknowledged that the Telangana High Court, before which at least 6,000 cases challenging the Section-22A categorisation are pending, has directed him to publish the revised list of properties after a thorough verification by the Registration and Stamps Department.
In at least two cases filed by citizens after 15 August, the court pulled up the government, ordering “an interim suspension” of government proceedings that arbitrarily placed private properties onto the 22A list without proper basis.
Appealing to the public not to panic, the minister also announced a toll-free number for owners and builders to register their complaints.
With a senior minister directly admitting poor adherence to procedures, the Revanth Reddy government seems to be in the throes of a crisis once again.
The Realtors Association in Hyderabad has strongly protested against what they called an “indiscriminate action”, and told ThePrint that they fear registrations across the state could come to a standstill given the large-scale errors in the Revenue Department.
A prominent real estate developer, who did not wish to be named, told ThePrint, “Property buyers in the gated community we developed have been running from pillar to post to register their property. They have already paid huge sums of money; they are financially and mentally distressed. In the case of builders, even if a portion of a survey number is disputed, the entire survey numbers comprising hundreds of acres, divided into thousands of plots, have been blocked and placed under the Prohibited list.”
Both the Bharat Rashtra Samithi and the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders have condemned the Congress government, and pledged support for the people impacted by this move.
BRS deputy floor leader and former minister T Harish Rao warned the Congress against what he termed lackadaisical governance, asking the government to publish a white paper on why patta lands were placed on the prohibited list. The BRS has vowed to bring this issue up for debate in the ensuing monsoon session.
BJP assembly floor leader A Maheshwar Reddy told a press conference Tuesday that the Telangana government was misusing the provision of Section 22-A to place private properties in the Prohibited List, alleging that the exercise could lead to a scam of thousands of crores.
“If the issue is not resolved on a timely basis, we will approach the Lokayukta, the CBI, and the ED as well if necessary,” he told the presser at the state BJP office in Hyderabad.
With the Section 22-A issue being discussed by the Chief Minister in the state cabinet meeting on 14 August, the Prohibited List is expected to dominate the discussion of the assembly’s monsoon session.
The HYDRAA issue
This issue has surfaced days after the Telangana High Court asked the Indian Army to guard a 40-acre disputed property after the Shanta Sriram Constructions alleged the HYDRAA illegally entered their premises and caused destruction.
The HC was hearing a contempt petition filed by the real estate company, also challenging the state government and the revenue department’s ownership claims over the 40-acre land parcel in 2016. Their contempt petitions alleged HYDRAA officials defied judicial orders and interfered with the private property.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
Also read: Hyderabad’s HYDRAA is using history to build a livable city of future. In Singham style