VIJAYAWADA: The state govt has decided to lift the ban on 22A lands for the benefit of the poor. It has instructed district collectors to submit a report within three days detailing how many lands are under 22A in each district and under which categories. The govt has also decided to restart the resurvey of lands.
Revenue minister Anagani Satya Prasad said during the previous govt, lands were unlawfully placed under 22A to harass landowners and grab their lands. There were numerous appeals from public representatives to remove all such lands from the prohibited list. A review meeting on land issues was held on Friday, with collectors, joint collectors, MPs, and MLAs from 11 districts in zone 2 and zone 3. The review was attended by special chief secretary (revenue) RP Sisodia, CCLA Jayalakshmi, and additional CCLA Prabhakar Reddy.
Satya Prasad said 22A became a major issue in the state and was misused by the previous govt. He stated that some lands were illegally included under 22A.
“During the previous regime, 4.5 lakh acres of land were unlawfully exempted from the ban, with 7,000 acres registered illegally. All such registrations would be cancelled and action would be taken against officials involved in the irregularities,” he warned.
The revenue minister further said that action would be initiated against some MROs, who were involved in corruption by creating fake passbooks and causing bank loan scams. He said revenue conferences will continue till Jan 20 and grievances from the conferences would be resolved within 45 days.
The resurvey will restart on Jan 20 and will be conducted meticulously, he added.
“Each village will be taken as a unit for the re-survey, with participation from officials and public representatives. To avoid rush or errors, only 20 acres will be re-surveyed per day. In villages where re-surveys have been conducted, there were 180,000 complaints, and all will be resolved with new passbooks issued,” he said.
