For years, land administration in Andhra Pradesh has been plagued by outdated surveys, inaccurate records, overlapping claims and incorrect classification of land. For small and marginal farmers in particular, an error in a land record can mean years of uncertainty, litigation and difficulty in selling, mortgaging or otherwise using their property.
The Andhra Pradesh Government is now attempting to address these problems through a combination of legal and administrative changes and technology-driven land reforms.
The changes broadly involve three areas: a new framework for managing lands prohibited from registration under Section 22-A of the Registration Act, 1908; a state-wide resurvey and digitisation of land records; and the integration of revenue, survey and registration databases.
What exactly is changing, and what could the reforms mean for landowners, farmers and future development in Andhra Pradesh?
Q&A
The land-tilting question
Why did the Andhra Pradesh Government repeal the Land Titling Act?
The Andhra Pradesh Land Titling Act, 2022 was repealed by the Andhra Pradesh Land Titling Repeal Act, 2024, which received the Governor’s assent on July 31, 2024 and came into force immediately.
The government had opposed the earlier land-titling framework, arguing that it could affect property rights, weaken safeguards available to landowners and create scope for misuse.
The government is now pursuing a different approach centred on correcting and integrating existing land records rather than implementing the repealed title-registration framework.
What was the concern over the Title Registration Officer?
The government had raised concerns about the extent of the TRO’s powers and the consequences of an incorrect entry in the Title Register.
Under the Act, an entry in the Title Register was intended to carry conclusive evidentiary value. The government argued that an erroneous entry could therefore create considerable difficulties for a person seeking to establish ownership of the property.
What were the concerns over dispute resolution?
The government had argued that the framework did not provide the same institutional safeguards proposed in the NITI Aayog Model Land Titling Act, such as an independent Land Dispute Resolution Officer and a Land Titling Appellate Tribunal.
What were the concerns over property transfers?
The 2022 Act contained provisions under which property transfers and changes in the title record would be subject to scrutiny by the title-registration machinery.
The government had argued that this could increase bureaucratic discretion and potentially cause delays. The Land Titling Act has since been repealed. The current reform programme instead places greater emphasis on accurate surveys, integrated records, transparent registration procedures and correction of erroneous entries.
The Section 22-A problem
What is Section 22-A?
Section 22-A of the Registration Act, 1908 allows the State Government to prohibit the registration of specified categories of immovable property in order to prevent their illegal alienation.
The categories include certain government lands, assigned lands, endowment properties, Wakf properties, ceiling-surplus lands and Bhoodan lands, as well as other properties notified under the law.
The provision is intended to protect public and institutional property. The problem arises when land that is actually privately owned is incorrectly included in the prohibited-property database.
How can privately owned land end up on the prohibited list?
Errors can arise because of outdated survey records, incorrect revenue entries, clerical mistakes, duplication, discrepancies between departments or errors during digitisation.
What problems does a 22-A entry create for a landowner?
When a property is reflected as prohibited under Section 22-A, the registering authority generally cannot register a transaction involving that property.
This can prevent a genuine owner from selling, gifting, partitioning or otherwise transferring the property. It can also make it difficult to use the land as security for a bank loan.
What is the government doing about wrongly classified land?
The government’s approach includes verification of land records, removal of duplicate and obsolete entries, correction of erroneous classifications and integration of the prohibited-property database with the State’s digital land-record system.
The broader objective is to ensure that land is prohibited from registration only when there is a valid legal basis for doing so.
What changes under G.O.Ms.No.444?
What is G.O.Ms.No.444?
On July 22, 2026, the Andhra Pradesh Government issued G.O.Ms.No.444 of the Revenue (Registration-I) Department, laying down consolidated instructions for maintaining the prohibited-property list/database under Section 22-A.
The order seeks to bring uniformity to the system across the state and establish clearer procedures for adding and removing properties from the prohibited database.
What is the biggest change?
The order provides for a single, centralised Prohibited Property Database maintained by the Inspector General of Registration and Stamps (IGRS). The database is to be integrated with the Webland system.
Will a property be added to the prohibited list without notice?
The new framework provides safeguards for properties where citizens are in occupation or structures already exist.
The order requires notice and due enquiry in specified circumstances before inclusion. It also lays down procedures for examination of records and determination by competent authorities.
The intention is to make inclusion in the prohibited database a reasoned administrative process rather than an unexplained database entry.
What happens if only part of a survey number is prohibited?
The government has recognised that entire survey numbers may sometimes have been placed on the prohibited list when only one or more subdivisions should have been covered.
The new instructions provide for such discrepancies to be corrected so that portions that are not legally prohibited do not remain blocked merely because they form part of a larger survey number.
Who can add or remove a property from the list?
For several categories, the Revenue Divisional Officer or Sub-Collector is the competent authority. Certain cases require consultation with the Endowments Department or the State Wakf Board. For properties above specified extent limits, the government itself becomes the competent authority.
Does the new system mean every prohibited property will be removed?
No. Legally prohibited government, assigned, endowment, Wakf and other protected properties will continue to be protected. The objective is to prevent wrongful or unauthorised inclusion of properties and to ensure that legitimate private property is not unnecessarily blocked.
Land resurvey
What is the purpose of the Andhra Pradesh Land Resurvey?
The resurvey seeks to create updated, accurate and digitally integrated land records. It involves updating old survey maps, identifying and demarcating boundaries and linking physical land parcels with digital records. The stated objective is to provide a reliable foundation for formulation, registration, land-related services and future planning.
How did the resurvey begin?
The Central Government launched the National Land Records Modernization Programme (NLRMP) in 2008. It was revamped as the Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme (DILRMP) in 2016.
Andhra Pradesh launched its State resurvey programme through G.O.Ms.No.1348 dated September 25, 2018. Amendments to the Andhra Pradesh Rights in Land and Pattadar Pass Books Act also introduced Bhu-Aadhaar, a unique identification number for land parcels. The programme has since evolved into the current Resurvey 2.0 initiative.
Is the resurvey a Central or State Government programme?
It is a State-led programme being implemented within the broader framework of the Central Government’s DILRMP.
How much land does Andhra Pradesh have?
The State has approximately 3.40 crore acres, spread across nearly 1.35 crore survey numbers, according to the figures provided by the government.
How many small landholders are there?
According to the government, around 42 lakh farmers own up to one acre, while about 26 lakh own around two acres and another 21 lakh own around three acres.
This means that a substantial proportion of landholders operate relatively small holdings, making accurate boundaries and secure land records particularly important.
What progress has been made with the resurvey?
According to the government, during the previous government’s tenure, 86.44 lakh acres in 6,688 villages were resurveyed in about two-and-a-half years, although it has said that more than 10% of the survey records contained errors.
Under the present government, it says 87.03 lakh acres in 4,331 villages have been resurveyed in about one-and-a-half years.
Phase V is currently under implementation and covers about 50.36 lakh acres in 2,565 villages. Phase VI, covering around 93.40 lakh acres in 3,232 villages, is scheduled to begin in August 2026.
What happens during a digital resurvey?
The process combines aerial mapping with ground-level verification. High-resolution drone imagery is used to map land parcels.
GNSS/rover equipment is then used for field-level measurements and boundary verification. The intention is to match the physical parcel on the ground with its cadastral map and revenue record.
Where landowners participate in the verification process, disputes over boundaries can potentially be identified and addressed before the new record is finalised.
Technology and digital land records
What technologies are being used?
Resurvey 2.0 uses technologies including:
Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS)
Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) rovers
Drone surveys
Digital Land Parcel Maps (LPMs)
Dynamic QR Codes
Blockchain-based record management
What is Bhu-Aadhaar?
Bhu-Aadhaar is a unique identification number assigned to a land parcel so that each parcel has a distinct digital identity, so that its survey, ownership and transaction-related information can be linked across government systems.
What is Webland 2.0?
Webland is Andhra Pradesh’s digital land-record platform to integrate updated survey information with revenue and registration databases so that changes in ownership, subdivision and other land-related transactions can be reflected more consistently across departments.
What is Mee Bhoomi-Blockchain
What is the project?
Mee Bhoomi–Blockchain is a blockchain-based land-record management initiative intended to integrate the revenue, survey and registration systems. It uses the Hyperledger Fabric framework.
How does blockchain help?
The system is designed to maintain a tamper-evident and traceable record of authorised changes to land records. Each land parcel is assigned a unique digital identity, with subsequent transactions and changes recorded in the system.
The idea is to create a common digital record that can be accessed and verified by authorised users rather than allowing separate departmental databases to develop inconsistencies.
How large is the pilot?
The initial pilot covers seven mandals in seven districts, including Aspari, Penumuru, Repalle, Gannavaram, Kadiyam, Gummalakshmipuram and Kothavalasa. The government plans to expand the system in phases.
Beyond agriculture
What does “new forms of land use” mean?
It refers to using land for activities other than conventional agriculture.
These may include:
Horticulture
Aquaculture
Dairy farming
Food processing
Warehousing and logistics
Renewable energy
Industrial parks
Information technology
Data centres
Tourism
Educational institutions
Healthcare facilities
Why is this part of land reform?
The idea is that land administration should not only record ownership but also support planned and economically productive use of land.
Land consolidation
What is land consolidation, or Kamataala Ekeekarana?
Land consolidation is the process of reorganising fragmented agricultural holdings into larger, contiguous and more economically viable parcels without changing ownership rights.
Why have agricultural holdings become fragmented?
Repeated inheritance and family partition over generations can divide a farmer’s original holding into several smaller parcels.
What problems do fragmented holdings create?
Scattered holdings can increase the cost, create boundary disputes, and cause difficulty of cultivation. Farmers may have to travel between multiple parcels, while irrigation, mechanisation, transportation and boundary management can become more complicated.
How would consolidation work?
The idea is to reorganise fragmented parcels into compact blocks of equivalent value. Consolidation can make mechanisation, irrigation and soil management easier and potentially improve agricultural productivity.
Is Andhra Pradesh introducing compulsory consolidation across the State?
No. The government is presenting voluntary consolidation as a potential way to encourage cooperative farming, improve access to institutional credit and crop insurance and make agriculture more economically viable.
Land aggregation
What is land aggregation, or Bhoo Sameekarana?
Land aggregation involves bringing together land belonging to multiple owners for a planned development project.
Unlike compulsory acquisition, aggregation can be structured around voluntary participation, with landowners receiving a share of the benefits from the development.
What is the best-known example in Andhra Pradesh?
The Amaravati Land Pooling Scheme (LPS) is the state’s major example. Under the scheme, thousands of farmers contributed land for development of the proposed capital city.
What did participating farmers receive?
Instead of relying only on one-time compensation, the land-pooling model provided participating farmers with reconstituted residential and commercial plots.
The scheme also provided for annual annuity payments and other forms of support, including skill development and rehabilitation measures.
The underlying idea was to allow participating landowners to share in the future value created through development.
Where else could land aggregation be used?
The government is looking at land aggregation for projects such as:
Industrial corridors
Ports
Logistics parks
Airports
Renewable-energy projects
Digital infrastructure
Projects cited in this context include the Visakhapatnam–Chennai Industrial Corridor (VCIC), the Kopparthy Industrial Node and the Orvakal Industrial Hub, besides proposed large-scale digital infrastructure projects.
Why are accurate land records important for such projects?
Large infrastructure and industrial projects require clearly identifiable and contiguous parcels. Disputed ownership, overlapping claims and inaccurate boundaries can delay projects and lead to litigation.
The government therefore sees the resurvey, digital land records, integrated databases and the new Section 22-A framework as part of a broader attempt to create a more predictable land-administration system.
What do the reforms mean for an ordinary landowner?
The reforms are ultimately about something fairly basic: knowing what land belongs to whom, where its boundaries lie and whether it can legally be transacted.
Technological reforms make it easier for the landowner in many ways: A drone can establish a boundary; a database can connect records; and a blockchain can preserve a transaction trail.