Harish Rao demands inquiry commission on 22A issues | Hyderabad News

Hyderabad: Former minister T Harish Rao urged immediate intervention of opposition leader Rahul Gandhi into a serious governance crisis arising from the alleged misuse of Section 22A of the Registration Act, 1908, and the functioning of the revenue and registration machinery in Telangana. He demanded that a Commission of Inquiry headed by a retired High Court Judge be constituted to examine the entire 22A controversy and audit every survey number added to or removed from the prohibited-properties list from December 2023 onwards.In a letter to Rahul Gandhi on Thursday, Harish Rao alleged that private properties with long-standing titles, HMDA/GHMC-approved layouts, patta lands and properties regularised under the Urban Land Ceiling (ULC) framework were being arbitrarily brought under the 22A prohibited-properties list, creating uncertainty for thousands of genuine property owners.He said the reported impact was particularly serious in Hyderabad, Medchal-Malkajgiri, Rangareddy and Sangareddy districts, including established localities such as Jubilee Hills, Banjara Hills and Nizampet. Harish Rao stressed that section 22A is intended to prevent the registration of legally prohibited properties and cannot be used to create artificial disputes over bona fide private properties, freeze legitimate transactions or facilitate illegal collections.He said serious allegations had emerged of a “30% collection racket”, under which property owners were allegedly being forced to approach intermediaries to get their properties removed from the prohibited list, with demands reportedly reaching up to 30% of the market value.“These allegations are extremely serious and require independent verification. If they are false, an independent inquiry will establish the truth. If they are true, those responsible must face the law,” Harish Rao said.The BRS leader also questioned who was responsible for adding and removing properties from the 22A list, who benefited from such additions and subsequent de-notifications, whether intermediaries were involved and whether politically connected individuals or private entities were facilitating such transactions.Harish Rao demanded that the revenue minister be immediately removed from the Cabinet pending an independent investigation into the allegations. He called for a comprehensive forensic audit to establish who initiated and approved each inclusion, the legal basis for such action, the reasons for subsequent removal, the officials involved, the role of intermediaries and whether any financial transactions were associated with such changes.

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