Dharani portal to keep track of land records was touted as a revolutionary step towards digitalisation and transparency by the KCR govt.
Published Jun 16, 2023 | 10:30 AM ⚊ Updated Jun 16, 2023 | 6:41 PM
A screengrab of the Dharani land portal website.
For months now, 54-year-old A Venkat Reddy has been doing the rounds of the office of the Chief Commissioner of Land Administration (CCLA) at Abids in Hyderabad.
His land — for which he says he has all the valid documents — no longer belongs to him, according to the Telangana government’s ambitious Dharani portal.
“In the Dharani portal, the ownership of my land has been transferred to the name of another person. I have all the original documents with me. The officials say that it’s a human error and keep delaying the issue. They are also not giving anything in writing to me,” Reddy, a farmer from Addagudur mandal in Yadadri Bhuvangiri district, told South First.
Venkat Reddy isn’t alone.
The Dharani e-governance revenue portal, which was seen as a revolutionary step as it digitalised Telangana’s land administration assuring transparency, has now turned into a nightmare for lakhs of citizens.
When South First visited the CCLA office on Wednesday, 7 June, we found several citizens from different districts of Telangana queuing up to voice their concerns. Similar scenes, we were told, play out everyday at the CCLA as hundreds of citizens throng to get their grievances pertaining to the Dharani portal addressed.
People at the CCLA office for redressal of Dharani issues. (Ajay Tomar/South First)
It isn’t an easy task and repeated visits to the office has become a bane for citizens, especially poor farmers and small landowners.
Several people South First spoke to listed out the common issues they face on Dharani: Entry of wrong survey numbers, wrong names of owners, the lack of option to change bank account numbers, entire survey numbers being earmarked, mismatch of data in e-passbook, wrong entries of nature and classification of land, and wrong entry of patta land in notional khata, among others.
Launched in October 2020 by Telangana CM K Chandrashekhar Rao, the Dharani portal is the state government’s Integrated Land Records Management System.
Claimed to be the first ever such portal in the country by the Telangana government, it boasted of offering a one-stop solution with access to the land records in all the municipalities, along with several revenue and registration facilities such as further transfer of rights on sale or inheritance, managing land records, survey, map, updating of textual records, settlement operations, and others.
In 2020, the new Telangana Revenue Act came into force. It has repealed all the previous laws and brought several reforms in land revenue administration, including digitalisation of land maps — and the Dharani portal.
Under it, tahsildars were handed the authority to register agricultural lands, while sub-registrars were to handle the registration of non-agricultural lands and other properties.
While the portal was supposed to end the illegal land-grabbing and legal disputes over the ownership and boundaries, people at the CCLA office said it has only added to their woes.
Several people, including farmers, alleged to South First about how they have been doing the rounds of the offices of tahsildars, collectors and the CCLA in order to seek redressal of their issues.
Over one lakh grievances related to the Dharani land portal are reportedly pending, including a few thousand with the CCLA.
“This work should be done at the district revenue officials’ (DRO) level. but there is a lack of coordination between the office of mandal revenue officer (MRO) and sub-registrar,” retired BSNL officer from Serilingamapally, MA Satyanarayana Rao (68), told South First.
People outside the CCLA office. (Ajay Tomar/South First)
Rao, who owns three plots Nandeeswara Housing Colony in Ghatkesar of Kondapur, was at the CCLA office to get his name added to the buyer’s list.
“My name should be in the buyer’s column (mutation) but it has not been changed even after multiple attempts. I believe it was due to the mistake of the MRO, who did not inform the correct details to the sub-registrar,” Rao alleged.
Joint secretary of the Nandeeswara Housing Colony Plot Owner’s Welfare Association, Rao also pointed the pending issue of assigned lands to the Schedule Castes (SCs) and Schedule Tribes (STs) allotted by the government to landless poor families.
“There are around 40,000 to 50,000 of us. The heirs of the persons who sold the plots to us obtained the pass books from MRO by suppressing the fact of sale deeds made by their fathers,” Rao said.
Similarly, Venkat Ram Reddy (52) from Gajwel-Pragnapur in Siddipet district sought to get his patta (a legal land deed with the details of owner of the land) assigned.
“In Siddipet, almost every village has over 100 people facing one or other problem related to the Dharani portal,” Ram Reddy claimed to South First, and pointed to the huge expenses he has to incur every time he travels to Hyderabad.
Some others, including Ramanna, a farmer from Damercharla mandal in Nalagonda district, were there to receive the pattadar e-passbooks.
“I have been coming here for four months now. I have all the relevant documents and occupancy rights certificate (ORC). Still the officials have not issued my passbook,” she told South First.
Without denying that a large number of grievances are pending, Commissioner of Land Administration Naveen Mittal, who has been personally intervening in the matter, told South First, “The work to rectify these glitches is in progress. These numbers of pending grievances keep varying as Dharani portal sees lakhs of transactions everyday.”
On being asked whether these grievances were because of glitches in the Dharani portal software or caused by human error, Mittal said these were mostly human errors, often made by the beneficiaries who have grievances.
“It is because they did not participate in data verification and other such initiatives. In some cases they have also entered wrong survey numbers,” he added.
He added that the CCLA keeps on conducting training programmes for its officials throughout the year.
Even as BRS vehemently defends Dharani, insisting that it has benefitted lakhs of people, the sheer number of those facing issues due to the portal has turned it into a political hot topic.
Telngana CM KCR launching Dharani portal on 29 October 2020. (Telangana.gov.in)
The Congress and the BJP, which saw an opportunity to attack the BRS as soon as farmers began crying hoarse over the problems in the Dharani portal, wasted no time.
Both parties have been criticising Dharani, alleging that the portal has triggered even violence in villages as land disputes remained unresolved.
The rise in political decibel levels is not hard to understand. As this is an election year, the two Opposition parties want to use the inadequacies in Dharani portal as a powerful weapon against KCR who wants to turn the tables against them.
The BRS government, which has been dismissing the Opposition allegations as baseless, has now sharpened its attack.
KCR, while speaking at a public meeting last week at Nirmal, asked the people to throw the Congress in the Bay of Bengal as it has been pressing for the winding up of the Dharani portal.
On Monday, 12 June, in Gadwal, KCR insisted that if the Rythu Bandhu scheme subsidy amount was being credited into farmers’ bank accounts, it was because of Dharani.
A delegation of the Congress party, led by state unit president A Revanth Reddy and CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, recently submitted a memorandum to the chief secretary, focusing on issues that the farmers and landowners have been raising.
Vikramarka said that the Dharani portal was the main reason for the rise in crime, including murders and suicides in the state.
“Ever since the Dharani portal became operational in the state in 2020, the farmers have lost their rights on their lands. The land issues of over 12 lakh farmers remain unresolved due to the inadequacies in the portal,” he said.
The BJP also raised several issues related to the Dharnai portal. They included allegations that the portal was being managed by a benami firm close to the chief minister with an intent to grab lands worth thousands of crores.
Another complaint against the portal is that it is taking records since 1935 as the basis for determining the ownership, ignoring the subsequent changes and transfers. The party demanded the release of white paper on issues that had been resolved with the help of the portal.
Frustrated farmers and public-spirited people have challenged the Dharani portal in the Telangana High Court.
They have contended that the policy violated the fundamental rights of privacy and property of the citizens and provisions of the Registration Act, 1908, transfer of Property Act ,1982, Indian Stamps Act, 1899, and the Telangana Municipalities Act, 2019.
The petitioners urged the court to declare the Dharani portal as illegal, arbitrary and unconstitutional, and restrain the state government from implementing it. The Telangana High Court has asked the government to file a counter. The case has not yet been adjudicated.
The Telangana government has dismissed all allegations against Dharani, claiming that the portal was a revolutionary system to address age-old land disputes. It said it simplified the registration and mutation process with just a few clicks.
The then chief secretary and current Advisor to the Chief Minister Somesh Kumar, who was the architect of Dharani, has argued that it was a secure and robust system that uses the latest technology and security features. He said it had been audited by reputed agencies and certified by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC).
People at the launch of Dharani portal on 29 October 2020. (Telangana.gov.in)
Congress president Revanth Reddy alleges that Dharani portal has become a goose that lays golden eggs for the top honchos in the BRS government. He accused IT Minister KT Rama Rao and other BRS leaders of resorting to a ₹1,000 crore scam in respect of the Thimmapur Bhoodan lands in Rangareddy district.
They were originally in the restricted list in the registration portal, but after the advent of Dharani, they are no longer in the banned list.
These Bhoodan lands of 146 acres were being sold out by KTR and other BRS leaders, he alleged while demanding action be taken against the district collector, MRO and the sub-registrar, and those who bought the prohibited lands.
He contends that all Bhoodan lands are assigned lands and that they were included in the banned list when the Congress was in power and therefore they cannot be sold.
He alleged that all the prohibited lands went to KCR’s followers with the help of Dharani.
He also contended that thousands of farmers were protesting in Rangareddy and Medchal districts and in front of the CCLA office due to problems in Dharani. He alleged that unless a 30 percent commission was given, the lands in Dharani’s prohibited list are not cleared.
