Applied for a Land Survey in Telangana and Nothing Happened? The Two Offices That Hold Your File, and the RTI That Gets the Record

What we saw in the paid Telangana survey RTIs we filed in the last 90 days (aggregate only): applicants had paid a fee and heard nothing, described an extent or survey-number problem, and had written to the Tahsildar rather than to the Survey and Land Records department. This page is built around that gap.

First, which survey service did you actually apply for?

The service standards and fees above are the ones the Survey and Land Records department publishes on the district portal we checked on 2026-09-03. They are a reference for your follow-up; an RTI cannot enforce them.

The two offices, and who holds what

Departmental hierarchy and functions as published on the Peddapalli district portal (an official telangana.gov.in site); your district page may list its own office details. File on the Telangana State RTI portal (citizen registration and login) selecting the public authority, or by post.

What the Survey and Boundaries Act, 1923 actually provides

• Undisputed boundaries are determined and recorded by the survey officer (Section 9); disputed boundaries are determined after an inquiry, with the decision recorded in writing (Section 10).
• Appeal: a person affected by a decision under Section 9 or 10 may appeal to the prescribed officer (Section 11). The period is sixty days from service of the notice (Section 12, as substituted by Act No. 6 of 2007 per the repository we read), excluding the time taken to obtain a copy of the decision and the map. A late appeal may be admitted for sufficient cause - and non-personal service of the notice is treated as sufficient cause - but Section 12(c) bars any late appeal once the notification under Section 13 has issued. Check whether the survey for your village has been notified before assuming the period can be extended.
• Getting the order and map: Section 11(2) provides that a copy of the order and of the map recording the boundaries as determined under Section 9, 10 or 11(1) shall be furnished to any interested person on application and at that person's cost. Ask under that provision first; use the RTI where the application is refused or ignored, or where the record you need is wider than the order and map.
• Conclusiveness: once the completed survey is notified, the record is conclusive proof of the boundaries unless modified by a civil court decree (Section 13), and a suit remains available within the period stated in Section 14.
• Survey on application: the Act also provides for survey on the written application of the proprietor or an interested person, with the applicant undertaking the cost (Sections 17 and 19, as read).

We read these sections on a secondary judgment repository: the India Code bitstream for this Act returned a not-found page on 2026-09-03 (both the PDF bitstream and the record page returned the same not-found response). The propositions above are general and the exact text should be verified from the official Act before anything is filed under it. The RTI Act's own first appeal (against a PIO's reply) is a different thing from the Act's appeal against a boundary determination; do not confuse the two.

The RTI, copy-ready

Address the Public Information Officer of the office that holds your file (normally the Tahsildar's office for a MeeSeva petition). Edit the bracketed details; keep every question tied to a record.

Subject: Information under the RTI Act, 2005 regarding my land survey petition No. [____] dated [____], Survey No. [____], [Village], [Mandal].

1. The date on which the said petition was received in your office, and its present status, as recorded.
2. The date on which the petition was approved or forwarded for demarcation, and a certified copy of the approval or forwarding note, as recorded, if any.
3. The date on which the petition reached the Mandal Surveyor, the name and designation of the surveyor to whom it was allocated, and the date fixed for the field survey, as recorded, if any.
4. Certified copies of any objection, fee demand, document requirement or notice recorded against the petition, if any.
5. The number of demarcation and sub-division petitions received and disposed of in the mandal in the last twelve months, as recorded, and the position of my petition in the pending list, if such a list is maintained.
6. Certified extracts of the Tippon (field measurement book) and the village plan for Survey No. [____], and the extent recorded against it in the record of rights, to the extent held and disclosable.
7. Where a boundary determination has been made for the said survey number under the Survey and Boundaries Act, and my application under Section 11(2) of that Act for the order and the map has not been acted upon, a certified copy of the order and the map, as recorded, if any.
8. The name and designation of the officer with whom the file presently rests. If any part of this information is held by another public authority (including the office of the Assistant Director, Survey and Land Records), please transfer that part under Section 6(3) and inform me.

I enclose the prescribed RTI fee. Yours faithfully, [Name] · [Address] · [Phone] · [Date]

What a useful reply looks like, and what to do next

• A recorded field date: keep it; if it passes, the RTI reply is the paper for a representation to the Tahsildar and the Assistant Director.
• A pending objection, fee or document: clear it, quoting the reply.
• "Forwarded to the surveyor" and nothing after: the next RTI goes to the Survey and Land Records district office for the allocation and the field date.
• Records that disagree on the extent: that is a records-correction or boundary matter under the relevant law; take legal advice with the extracts in hand.
• No reply, or an evasive one: the PIO is ordinarily required to respond within 30 days under Section 7(1); a First Appeal under Section 19(1) of the RTI Act is the next step, and is a separate matter from any appeal under the Survey and Boundaries Act.

A worked example (hypothetical - not a real customer's case)

Suppose a landholder pays for an F-Line petition at MeeSeva in April, hears nothing by August, and has written twice to the Tahsildar. The steps this page sets out would be: file the RTI above with the Tahsildar's PIO with a Section 6(3) request naming the Survey and Land Records office; on the reply, either act on the recorded field date, clear whatever is pending, or take the surveyor-allocation question to the district office. What the reply would say depends on the file; this example makes no claim about the outcome.

Details to keep ready

• MeeSeva application or acknowledgement number and the fee receipt
• Survey number, extent, village and mandal
• Date of the petition and what it was for (F-Line, sub-division, copy of record)
• Any notice, sketch or order you have received

Related guides

• Bhu Bharati: which module, which office (symptom finder)
• Mutation pending on Bhu Bharati
• Locating an inherited plot in a prohibited survey number
• Land survey delays across India

Common Questions

I paid the survey fee at MeeSeva months ago and no surveyor has come. What do I ask?

Ask for the file, not for the survey. The petition you paid for goes to the Tahsildar for approval and then to the Mandal Surveyor of the Survey and Land Records department for the field work, so the RTI asks for the date your petition was received, the date the Tahsildar approved it (if recorded), the date it reached the Mandal Surveyor, the surveyor allocated, and any recorded field date. The district service standard published for demarcation petitions is a point of reference for the follow-up, not a promise the RTI can enforce.

Which office do I address - the Tahsildar or the Survey department?

The one that holds your file today, with a Section 6(3) transfer request for the other. F-Line and sub-division petitions filed through MeeSeva sit with the Tahsildar (Mandal Revenue Office) until approved, then with the Mandal Surveyor. Survey records themselves - the Tippon (field measurement book), village plan and settlement register (shetwar) - are held by the Survey and Land Records department, whose district office is under an Assistant Director. Public revenue offices in Telangana are public authorities; file on the State RTI portal or by post.

My passbook shows less extent than my sale deed. Is that a survey problem?

Often it is a records problem first: the extent in the record of rights, the Tippon (field measurement book), and the registered deed can each say something different. The RTI asks for the certified extract of each record for your survey number so the discrepancy is on paper. Correcting the record or re-fixing the boundary is then a separate application or, where the boundary is disputed, a matter under the Survey and Boundaries Act - not something an RTI reply decides.

My neighbour disputes the boundary. Can an RTI settle it?

No. Under the Survey and Boundaries Act, 1923 a disputed boundary is determined by the survey officer after an inquiry, an appeal against that determination lies to the prescribed officer within a limited period, and a civil suit remains available within the period the Act sets. What an RTI does is obtain the recorded determination, the map and the order so that any appeal or suit starts from the record. Take legal advice on the boundary itself.

Can an RTI make the survey happen faster?

No. An RTI cannot conduct a survey, allocate a surveyor or decide a boundary. It obtains the recorded status, the dates and the responsible officer. In practice a petition that has a recorded status and a named officer is easier to follow up than one that has vanished into a queue, but the page makes no claim about what happens after the reply.

I only want a copy of the Tippon or village plan. Do I need an RTI?

Usually not first. Certified copies of survey records are a MeeSeva service of the Survey and Land Records department with published service standards of a few days to a couple of weeks (as displayed on the district portal). Use that service; use the RTI when the service itself stalls, when you need the file movement on your own petition, or when you need records the service does not cover.

Want the full details of this service — what we ask, what you get, and how filing works? See the dedicated service page: RTI For Land Survey Issues