Telangana BJP Legislature Party leader Alleti Maheshwar Reddy on Wednesday alleged that the Revenue Department, which is responsible for protecting public property, has instead become a centre of ‘questionable’ land transactions, forcing citizens to make repeated visits to government offices to safeguard their land rights.
Demanding the release of a White Paper detailing the number of properties added to and removed from the prohibited list since the Congress Government assumed power, Mr. Maheshwar Reddy alleged that valuable lands in Hyderabad, Rangareddy, Sangareddy and Medchal-Malkajgiri districts were being selectively targeted.
Addressing a press conference at the BJP State office, he alleged that asking Revenue officials to investigate dubious land dealings is like “handing the keys to the thief”. The ongoing probe and forensic audit of Dharani were being used for “political blackmail” rather than to uncover genuine irregularities, he charged.
Demanding transparency, Mr. Maheshwar Reddy called on Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy to disclose details of the forensic audit into alleged irregularities linked to the Dharani land records portal. “Dharani may have changed to Bhu Bharati, but has the racket changed? Have people’s problems ended?” he asked.
The BJP leader questioned the rationale behind expanding the prohibited lands list from about 20 lakh acres to nearly one crore acres with cultivated by farmers too included in the list without valid justification. A “multi-crore rupee racket” was operating in the name of issuing No-Objection Certificates (NOCs) to remove lands from the prohibited category, he charged.
According to him, cases relating to Section 22-A, which accounted for less than 10% of land-related disputes until 2017, have now risen to 30-40%. Nearly nine lakh applications covering 11.42 lakh survey numbers had been received for the regularisation of Sada Bainama transactions across 32 districts. However, only 112 survey numbers had been resolved so far, he claimed.
Even High Court directives to prepare a comprehensive list of 22-A and Part-B lands had not been implemented, he alleged, and challenged Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and Mr. Srinivas Reddy to an open debate on the issue.
Enhanced compensation
In a separate development, Telangana BJP president N. Ramchander Rao wrote to the Chief Minister urging the government to provide compensation amounting to ‘10 times’ the official property value for owners affected by the proposed elevated corridor in the Karkhana area, similar to the package extended to those impacted in the Tumkunta region.
He suggested a property-wise reassessment based on prevailing market values in consultation with affected landowners, arguing that such an approach would ensure fairness while facilitating the project’s timely completion.
Published - August 12, 2026 08:06 pm IST