Srikakulam, Jan 23: Former Minister Dharmana Prasada Rao strongly rebutted the misinformation being spread on land titling and resurvey, stating that the draft Land Titling Act did not originate in Andhra Pradesh but was prepared under the BJP-led Government of India after decades of study and was referred to NITI Aayog, which circulated the model law to all States since land is a State subject. He said the purpose of the law is to provide clear land titles, protect landowners’ rights, reduce disputes, strengthen investor confidence, and support national development, and questioned how leaders who earlier accepted this framework could now claim it was meant to grab lands. He asserted that the Constitution does not permit arbitrary takeover of property and that land acquisition is governed by strict legal safeguards, calling it dangerous and irresponsible for cabinet ministers to mislead people on legal matters.
Dharmana said successive governments, including multiple TDP regimes, failed to conduct a comprehensive resurvey after the British era, and that only under YS Jagan Mohan Reddy was a historic, scientific resurvey successfully undertaken to update revenue records, boundaries, and ownership. He clarified that survey stones were installed to mark the latest official resurvey and distinguish it from colonial-era markers, and that the presence of YS Jagan’s image on the stones has no legal bearing on ownership or transfer of land, but only signifies the government under which the resurvey was conducted. He said the present government is continuing the very systems introduced earlier, automatic mutation, land-parcel mapping before registration, digital registrations, and village-level sub-registrar services, while falsely disowning their origin, changing only covers on passbooks, and erasing symbols without altering the substance of the reforms.
He warned that deliberate falsehoods about land laws erode public trust, insult constitutional values, and lower the standards of public life, stressing that political parties exist to educate citizens, protect rights, and improve living standards, not to spread fear. Dharmana said that if the coalition truly believed the law was wrong, they should question the Prime Minister and NITI Aayog who drafted it, instead of misleading innocent people, and asserted that global best practices, legal frameworks, and institutional reforms brought under YS Jagan’s tenure were aimed at building a clean, transparent, and modern land governance system for Andhra Pradesh.
YSRCP slams TDP on land survey lies
