Ponguleti orders review of prohibited property applications

Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy directed officials to upload land-related documents by August 14 and resolve genuine prohibited property applications. He asked Sub-Registrars to rely on verified online records while protecting government land and addressing technical and legal issues

Hyderabad: The Congress government’s handling of lands listed under the prohibited properties (POB)/22A category has left property owners grappling with uncertainty, even as Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy promised a time-bound clean-up of the system. He said legally eligible property owners would not be denied justice and directed officials to dispose of genuine applications on a war footing.

In a review meeting here on Tuesday, Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy asked officials to upload all government orders, proceedings, layout approvals and other documents related to land regularisation by August 14. The officials were instructed to take decisions on property registrations based on verified online records.

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“Sub-Registrars should not exercise discretionary powers and instead, should rely on online records. If a registration is rejected, they should give reasons instead of mechanically turning down transactions,” he said.

Earlier, agricultural, non-agricultural and POB lists were maintained separately under the Dharani portal. Following their integration under the Bhu Bharati portal, there have been complaints that some properties were appearing in the prohibited list during scrutiny by Sub-Registrars, resulting in registrations being stopped altogether. The Minister directed officials to compare such cases with the latest information being uploaded before taking a decision.

While stressing that government land would be protected and action taken against wrongdoing, Srinivas Reddy said the government would resolve technical and legal complications inherited from the previous administration.

However, he did not offer any clear instructions on properties which were freshly included in the prohibited list despite having all necessary permissions from the agencies concerned, including HMDA, GHMC and RERA. Instead, he directed that the POB applications should be sent directly to the District Collectors for case-by-case review.