Hyderabad, Sept. 19: The Congress has challenged BRS leaders KT Rama Rao and T Harish Rao to provide survey wise details of private properties they claim were wrongly placed under Section 22 A.
TPCC spokesperson Syed Nizamuddin made the challenge at a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan on Saturday. He said genuine ownership claims would be verified and errors would be corrected.
Nizamuddin asked the BRS leaders to provide the district, village, survey number, land extent and ownership details for each disputed property.
“Do not bring hashtags. Bring survey numbers,” he said.
He said genuine property owners could approach the government with supporting documents. Officials would examine the records and remove properties from the prohibited list if they found erroneous entries.
Nizamuddin said Section 22 A was not introduced by the Revanth Reddy government. He said the provision had been in force since 2007.
The Congress spokesperson questioned why the BRS government did not change the system during its decade in power if it considered the restrictions improper.
Section 22 A List Faces Political Dispute
Nizamuddin claimed that about 1.02 crore acres were already covered by prohibited property records when the Congress came to power in December 2023.
He said most of the land belonged to government and protected categories. These included forest land, assigned or Lavani land, shikam land, Waqf properties and endowment land.
According to Nizamuddin, private land accounted for about four lakh acres. He said some of these parcels faced court cases, government claims or private ownership disputes.
He accused the BRS of presenting the entire prohibited extent as private or farmers’ land. Such a presentation, he said, could mislead property owners and the wider public.
However, Nizamuddin acknowledged that errors existed in the records. He cited cases where officials placed entire survey numbers under restrictions even though only part of the land faced an issue.
He said these errors had affected genuine owners. The government had therefore created a mechanism to receive complaints and verify disputed entries.
Nizamuddin said a high level committee was also examining complaints linked to the prohibited list.
Section 22 A Corrections Under Government Review
Nizamuddin said 47,440 acres had been removed from the prohibited category by August 2026 after officials identified erroneous entries.
He said the figure showed that the government was correcting records rather than adding private properties to the list.
The Congress spokesperson also questioned the previous BRS government’s handling of land records. He asked why the BRS had not prepared clean village wise records during its time in office.
He referred to the Dharani portal and district level revenue records while raising questions about the earlier administration.
Nizamuddin also alleged irregularities in Dharani records. He claimed some changes occurred without proper sale or gift documents.
He said some disputed properties continued to remain under Section 22 A because ownership claims had not been settled.
According to Nizamuddin, retaining disputed properties under restrictions can prevent further transactions until courts or authorities settle ownership questions.
He also defended restrictions on assigned land distributed to landless poor families. He said such land should not become a source of real estate transactions.
Nizamuddin said authorities should investigate illegal sales or occupation of assigned and Lavani land. He said the investigation should apply regardless of the political identity of those involved.
The TPCC spokesperson also urged affected owners not to sell properties under pressure. He warned them against paying intermediaries who promise to remove properties from the prohibited list.
Instead, he asked owners to submit applications with supporting documents to the authorities.
Nizamuddin said officials would verify each claim. If records establish genuine ownership and show an erroneous Section 22 A entry, the government would remove the restriction.
He challenged KTR and Harish Rao to follow the same process for cases brought to their notice.
If the properties are genuinely private, Nizamuddin said the government should examine them. If they belong to government, assigned, forest, Waqf or endowment categories, he said their classification should be disclosed.
The Congress spokesperson said the dispute should rely on official records and individual survey numbers rather than political claims.
“Let records decide, not rumours,” he said.
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