Hyderabad: Telangana chief minister Anumula Revanth Reddy on Saturday ordered a ‘comprehensive inquiry’ into the agency which manages the state’s Dharani portal which maintains land digitised land records. In a review meeting, he expressed ‘serious concern’ on the safety of the land records of lakhs of farmers which he said are in the hands of foreign companies.
On Saturday, the Dharani Committee, which was set up to look into issues of the Dharani portal, submitted a report to the chief minister. The report mentioned flaws in the Telangana Rights in Land and Pattadar Pass Books Act which came into force in 2020. The committee told Revanth Reddy that the comprehensive land survey by the previous government was conducted in haste in just three months time, which led to a lot of problems.
The committee members recommended to the chief minister the only option before the government is either to amend the law or enact a new ROR act to correct the errors in the Dharani portal.
“The same survey records have been taken as a parameter and hence the land record disputes increased in the state. As a result, lakhs of land ownership problems came to the light. Due to this, even small typographical errors in the names have to be rectified only by the district collector. The committee brought to the notice of the CM Revanth that the revenue department has given an opportunity to correct the mistakes in Dharani data through about 35 modules, but the farmers are facing difficulties due to the lack of understanding of which modules to apply for,” said a release from Revanth Reddy’s office.
Private company under dock over issues of Dharani
In a review meeting with officials, Revanth Reddy questioned the handing over the maintenance of the Dharani portal by the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government to a private agency in the place of CCLA (Chief Commissioner of Land Administration) which is supposed to handle the portal on behalf of the state government.
“The chief minister blamed the agency for keeping the highly confidential land data, Aadhaar and bank account details with the agency and also raised doubts whether the data of land records is safe. The officials informed the CM that the previous state government entrusted the works of design and development and management of the Dharani portal to a company called IL & FS based on technical and financial bidding and qualifications in 2018,” said a press release from chief minister Revanth Reddy’s office.
The Congress prior to winning the 2023 November Assembly election had been critical of the BRS government and Revanth had vowed to undertake this exercise while he was in the opposition as well. After the Dharani portal was launched, many farmers had been complaining of issues with regarding to land registration and name transfers. The portal was launched to clean up the state’s land records – both agricultural and non-agricultural.
’Decision for permanent solution’
In the review meeting with officials, Revanth Reddy said that a decision will be taken for a permanent solution based on the final report of the committee that has been set up to look into issues pertaining to the Dharani portal.
“The Chief Minister instructed the officials to make necessary arrangements in all Mandal Tahsildar offices to dispose of the applications in the first week of March . The CM also directed the state Revenue department to formulate terms and conditions for the disposal of pending applications by taking into consideration the suggestions made by the Dharani Committee,” added the release.
According to the chief minister’s office, over 2.45 lakh applications are pending in the Dharani portal across Telangana. Revanth Reddy also discussed with the officials the possibility of addressing the pending applications in the first phase. “The CM advised the authorities to issue necessary orders to resolve these issues immediately without troubling the farmers and make arrangements for the same in the first week of March,” added the release.
He held the meeting with the Dharani Committee at the Secretariat today along with state Revenue minister Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy, chief adviser to chief minister Vemnarender Reddy, Dharani Committee Members M. Kodanda Reddy, Retired IAS Raymond Peter, advocate Sunil, Chief Secretary Santhi Kumari, and others.
Dharani committee submits report
The Dharani committee also said that lakhs of applications have already been rejected and that it ‘has become a burden for the farmers’ to pay a fee of Rs 1000 to correct each mistake/ error. The sale of lands in the prohibited list is also taking place due to lack of coordination between the Registration and Stamps and Revenue department.
Over the last few years, many people including farmers have complained about facing issues and losing registration due to errors that could not be fixed. In the meeting, Revanth Reddy also discussed the ‘misuse of crores of public money’, alluding that the state Agriculture department took Dharani data to deposit Rythu Bandhu (subsidy income for farmers) benefit in the accounts.
At the meeting, Revanth Reddy asked officials to study the problems in depth and ‘clean up’ Dharani land records without any land disputes or new complications. He cautioned the committee members to check the existing errors with the decisions taken by the government on the land records and avoid new problems.
Inquiry into firms tender for Dharani portal
On Saturday, Revanth Reddy said that it was astonishing that the company which had won the Dharani tender for Rs.116 crores in 2018, sold its shares for around Rs 1200 crore. He expressed doubts on change of the names of the ownership of costly lands as the agency possessed all the land records.
