Harish Rao counters Ponguleti, questions Congress claims on 22A lands

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) launched a sharp counter to Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy’s remarks on 22-A prohibited lands, accusing him of misleading the Assembly and shifting blame to the previous government.

Hyderabad: The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) on Saturday mounted a point-by-point rebuttal of Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy’s claims on 22-A prohibited lands, accusing him of misleading the Assembly and attempting to shift the blame for the controversy to the previous BRS government. The party demanded that the Minister spell out a clear time frame to resolve the issue rather than indulging in a blame game.

Speaking to media persons at Telangana Bhavan here on Saturday, the party deputy floor leader T Harish Rao opined that Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy failed to answer the questions raised by the BRS on how many acres were added to the prohibited list after the Congress came to power and instead spoke about the extent already in the list.

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Speaking to mediapersons at Telangana Bhavan here, Harish Rao said the Minister had effectively admitted that an error occurred when a list was uploaded on December 3, 2025, allegedly because officials were short of time. Yet, he said, Srinivas Reddy neither apologised to affected property owners nor gave a deadline for resolving the problem or promised a white paper on lands added to and removed from the list.

Rubbishing the claim that the problem was inherited from the BRS regime, the BRSLP deputy leader asked why registrations had stopped and people had taken to the streets under the Congress regime, if the issue had existed for years. “If it happened in the past, why did you apologise, blame officials and set up a toll-free number?” he asked.

He also accused Srinivas Reddy of getting basic facts wrong. A farmer suicide cited by the Minister as having occurred in Mirdoddi in Siddipet constituency, was actually in Dubbak constituency, he said. Similarly, Kondapak was wrongly described as part of Siddipet constituency, while it falls under Gajwel.

Harish Rao ridiculed Srinivas Reddy’s claim that GO 76 for regularising Singareni workers’ lands was issued by the YS Rajasekhar Reddy government, stating that it was brought by the BRS government. He also disputed the shifting claims over houses in prohibited lands, stating that the Congress leaders including Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy had themselves alleged that around 25,000 houses were affected and the inclusion of 42,000 acres in Yadadri.

Countering the Minister’s allegations concerning his father-in-law’s land, the BRSLP deputy leader said the property was allotted in 1995 by the then Congress government to an ex-serviceman, followed by a No Objection Certificate issued again by the then Congress government in 2010. Registration was subsequently done after payment through a cheque during the Congress rule, he said.

He added that a part of the land was acquired by the government for the Godavari Sujala Sravanthi scheme, with compensation paid by the then Congress government and mutation completed in 2011, but not the BRS government.

Harish Rao reminded that the BRS government issued pattas to 11 lakh farmers under Sadabainama, distributed podu land titles covering six lakh acres to tribals, and brought GOs 76, 58, 59 and 118 to address land rights.

He alleged that the Congress government had also admitted to registrations involving assigned and patta lands without proper verification, pointing out that information indicated around 9,200 such documents. He demanded details of action against officials and questioned why no action had been taken over the alleged challan irregularities.

Harish Rao said the issue was not about political rhetoric but about when every wrongly included private property would be removed from 22-A. He accused the government of attacking the Opposition instead of providing a time-bound solution. He demanded that the prohibited-list issue be resolved without forcing affected people to make repeated applications and run around revenue offices.