Bhu Bharati Curbs Block Land Transfers in Telangana Agency Areas
Non-tribal landowners across Telangana's agency areas are facing severe hurdles in transferring legally owned properties to their heirs due to restrictions under the Congress government's Bhu Bharati land records system and errors in the Section 22-A prohibited properties list.
Landowners holding valid pattadar passbooks find themselves unable to divide their holdings among their sons and daughters through gift deeds. Under the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi administration, the Dharani portal permitted such family partitions, including the gifting of land parcels to daughters. However, the removal of this facility under Bhu Bharati has left families without an avenue to distribute assets during an owner's lifetime, with registrations stalled even after applicants pay the prescribed charges.
The situation has been further aggravated by the inclusion of legally held non-tribal properties in the Section 22-A prohibited properties list. Although land restrictions under the Land Transfer Regulation, commonly referred to as the 1/70 Act, are framed to safeguard tribal land rights, landowners state that genuine and legally registered properties have been placed on the prohibited list without adequate verification.
These automated restrictions have brought land transactions to a halt, forcing owners into a lengthy and cumbersome verification process. Affected applicants report that clearing a blocked property requires sequential approvals across multiple tiers of the revenue administration, moving from village-level revenue functionaries to the Mandal Revenue Officer, the Revenue Divisional Officer, and ultimately the District Collector.
More than four months have passed since Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy pledged to resolve grievances linked to the Section 22-A prohibited list. Despite that assurance, field revenue authorities have still not been provided with an edit option in the system to amend incorrect entries or settle genuine complaints, leaving landowners without an accessible grievance-redressal mechanism.
Landowners are urging the state government to distinguish genuine tribal land disputes from established non-tribal ownership. They have called on authorities to empower local revenue officials to rectify erroneous entries on the portal and immediately restore the facility for executing family partitions and gift deeds.
