Published Jul 29, 2026 | 9:00 AM ⚊ Updated Jul 29, 2026 | 9:00 AM
Telangana Government
Synopsis: AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi has alleged that Telangana’s decision to lease Telangana Urdu Academy land in Rangareddy district to a private firm bypassed mandatory approvals and public consultation. The land in question falls under the prohibited list, but the government order neither specifies the statutory provisions under which it was issued nor states whether the requisite procedural steps were followed.
AIMIM president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi has alleged that the Telangana government’s decision to grant a 30-year lease of Telangana Urdu Academy land in Dargah Hussain Shah Wali village in Rangareddy district to a private construction firm bypassed mandatory approvals and public consultation.
A government order issued by the Minorities Welfare Department on 16 July permitted the lease of one acre and four guntas (5,220 square yards) of Telangana Urdu Academy land in Survey No. 29 to NN Infra & Constructions.
The lease has been granted for 30 years on a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis, subject to the Academy’s bylaws, for the construction of an Urdu-Ghar-cum-Shadikhana and a commercial complex.
The order stipulates that the land cannot be alienated, sold or mortgaged, and ownership will remain with the Telangana Urdu Academy.
It states that the private company will have no financial claim against the government, the property must prominently display an inscription identifying it as Academy land, and the lease will not confer any judicial claim over the property on the firm.
Owaisi, in a post on X on Monday, 27 July, said clearance from Minority Affairs Secretary B Shafiullah alone could not authorise the lease of the land.
He said a decision of this nature required approval from the Chief Secretary after issuing a public notice inviting suggestions and objections and alleged that the prescribed process had been bypassed entirely.
Owaisi also urged Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy to intervene and cancel the government order at the earliest.
The State Government’s Minority Affairs Secretary has issued a Government Order leasing 5,220 square yards of land belonging to the Urdu Academy to a private company for 30 years.
The Secretary has no power to do so. Such a decision must be approved by @TelanganaCS after issuing… pic.twitter.com/9uIafjfzFj
— Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) July 27, 2026
The land at the centre of the dispute is listed on the Telangana Inspector General of Registration and Stamps (IGRS) website under the Prohibited Lands list in Section 22A(1)(b) of the Registration Act, 1908.
The provision bars registration and transactions involving government, assigned, endowment, wakf and disputed lands.
Properties listed under Section 22A(1)(b) are immovable properties owned by the State and cannot be sold, gifted, exchanged or leased except by persons statutorily empowered by the government.
The government order does not specify the statutory guidelines or legal provisions under which the Minorities Welfare Department exercised the authority to grant the lease of Survey No. 29.
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The latest uniform guidelines governing allotment of State-owned land are contained in the Government Land Allotment Policy issued in 2012 by the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh government.
Under these guidelines, the department that owns the land must first scrutinise the application internally before forwarding it to the Revenue Department for further examination.
Local revenue authorities, including the Tahsildar or Mandal Revenue Officer, are required to conduct a field inspection, following which a public notice must be issued inviting objections.
The District Collector is expected to issue a no-objection certificate after independent enquiries by the Revenue Divisional Officer and the Collector.
The policy further provides that while leases of government properties for schools, colleges, hospitals and office buildings fall within the Collector’s jurisdiction, proposals involving leases to private firms must be forwarded to the Chief Commissioner of Land Administration (CCLA).
The government order states that the lease was approved based on correspondence from the Director-Secretary of the Telangana Urdu Academy and the Director of Minorities Welfare.
It does not, however, specify whether the field-level verification, public notice process and other procedural requirements envisaged under the land allotment guidelines were completed before approval.
An official at the Serilingampally Mandal Revenue Office told South First that if the government earmarks land for a particular department, the department concerned is authorised to lease it to private organisations.
The same office, however, said it was unaware of the government order or the lease. The office of the Commissioner for Minority Welfare, Telangana, declined to comment on the matter.
