Vijayawada: In a major New Year gift, the three-party alliance government has removed five categories of land from the prohibited list under Section 22-A.
The revenue department took action in this respect on Thursday following Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s advice to provide some long-awaited relief to farmers and landowners.
Naidu has directed revenue officials to resolve the issues surrounding Section 22A of prohibited lands expeditiously. He emphasised the need for a proper survey to delist genuine private properties that were wrongly included.
The CM had promised the people during the last year’s election campaign to resolve the prohibited lands issues. After assuming charge, he conducted review meetings and issued directions to resolve the issue. He asked officials to re-examine details of 5,74,908 acres of assigned land that was placed under freehold status during the previous government’s term.
Naidu reiterated that the government’s aim was justice for landowners and farmers, ensuring that rightful lands are freed from unnecessary prohibitions and disputes are resolved at the local level “in an efficient and citizen-friendly way.”
He said the 22A issue is being addressed alongside a complete overhaul of the revenue system, including resurvey of lands, online digitisation of records, auto-mutation of passbooks, and use of secure technologies (like blockchain) to prevent tampering.
The revenue department removed five categories of land from the prohibited list under Section 22-A. Revenue, Registration and Stamps minister Anagani Satyaprasad announced the decision after signing the first official file of the New Year, in line with the CM’s directive to make the revenue system more people-friendly.
The minister said lands allotted to former and serving defence personnel, freedom fighters and political victims, assignments made prior to June 18, 1954, and private patta lands have been removed from the 22-A list.
In cases where only a portion of the land in a survey number is disputed, that portion alone will remain prohibited after sub-division, while the remaining land will be freed.
Decisions on four more categories — conditional patta lands, service inam lands, and certain ‘dotted lands’ re-included during re-surveys — will be taken soon after a meeting of the Group of Ministers.
A decision on freehold lands is expected within two months.
The minister made it clear that landowners need not submit multiple documents. Any one among several recognised records — including old revenue registers, assignment records, Record of Holdings, registration documents, or DKT pattas — will be sufficient for removal from the prohibited list. Revenue officials have been instructed not to harass applicants by seeking excessive documentation.
Declaring 2026 as the Year of Land Reforms, Satyaprasad said, “Large-scale land irregularities committed during the YSRC term are under investigation, and those responsible will face consequences.”
Just as last year saw strict action against those involved in spurious liquor cases, this year will focus on land encroachments and fake registrations.
The minister also announced the distribution of 21.8 lakh new pattadar passbooks from Friday till January 9. The chief minister would participate in one of these programmes.
Collectors would be empowered to cancel fake registration documents, and double registrations would not be tolerated, Satyaprasad said.
Satyaprasad said Artificial Intelligence and blockchain technology would be deployed to reduce land disputes to zero, reiterating the government’s commitment to transparent, technology-driven land governance.
