A.P. simplifies removal of lands from 22A prohibited list, strengthens property rights
The Andhra Pradesh government has announced a major overhaul of the Section 22A land rules, introducing simplified rules aimed at protecting landowners' rights, improving transparency
The Andhra Pradesh government has announced a major overhaul of the Section 22A land rules, introducing simplified rules aimed at protecting landowners' rights, improving transparency and preventing arbitrary inclusion of private lands in the restricted category. Addressing the media at the Secretariat on Wednesday, Revenue, Registration and Stamps Minister Anagani Satya Prasad said the move would bring permanent relief to thousands of farmers and landowners whose properties had been caught in the 22A list due to irregularities during the previous government. He said all earlier circulars on the subject had been withdrawn and manual entries that enabled manipulation of land records would be eliminated, with Webland 2.0 becoming the sole database for agricultural land records.
The Inspector General of Registration and Stamps will maintain the centralised database of prohibited properties. The Minister said several categories of land, including assignments made before June 18, 1954, legally auctioned temple and Waqf lands subject to Supreme Court orders, village service inam lands, conditional patta lands and old unapproved layouts, would be removed from the 22A list. Gramakantam lands would not be included, while lands purchased through APSFC auctions would also be deleted wherever applicable. He said the burden of proving that a property belongs to the government would now rest with the government rather than citizens.
Authorities have also made it mandatory to issue prior show-cause notices before including any land in the prohibited list, provide 30 days for objections and 14 additional days for legal arguments, and pass reasoned orders. Appeals can be filed before the Joint Collector and subsequently before the State government. Rejecting allegations that sub-registrar offices were being privatised, Mr. Satya Prasad said the public-private partnership model was limited to infrastructure and customer facilities, while all statutory registration powers would remain with government officials. He assured that document writers' livelihoods would be protected and accused the previous government of unsuccessfully attempting to hand over registration services to an unidentified private company.
Stamps and Registrations Inspector General B.R. Ambedkar was also present.
The BriefWire