Government to Introduce New RoR Act and Revamp Dharani Portal
Hyderabad: The State government has announced plans to introduce a new Record of Rights (RoR) Act 2024 in the upcoming Assembly session. Along with this, a mobile application will be launched to address pending applications on the Dharani Portal.
The announcement was made by Information and Public Relations Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy during a press conference at the Secretariat on Sunday. The event was part of the ‘Praja Palana Vijayotsavalu’ celebrations. The Minister shared that the government has studied RoR Acts from 18 States and consulted revenue experts to improve the existing law. He noted that the current Act had some flaws, especially affecting rural populations, prompting the creation of a new version. The draft of the new Act was previously shared with the public for feedback and will now be presented to the Assembly for approval.
The Minister highlighted that land-related issues through the Dharani Portal were one of the major concerns raised during the elections. To address this, the government is revamping the portal with expert advice. The National Informatics Centre (NIC) has been tasked with improving the portal, and the government aims to resolve all pending issues by Sankranti.
Simplifying the Dharani Portal
Srinivas Reddy revealed that 2.45 lakh applications were pending last year on the Dharani Portal, which consists of 33 modules. These modules often confused users, leading to application rejections when they mistakenly used the wrong module. To make the process user-friendly, officials have been directed to clearly specify the reasons for rejecting applications.
The government is also decentralizing the process to empower local officials such as collectors, MROs, RDOs, special collectors, and the Chief Commissioner of Land Administration (CCLA) to resolve issues directly. This step is aimed at speeding up resolutions and reducing delays.
Planned Changes to Land Administration
The Minister criticized the previous BRS government for abruptly scrapping the Village Revenue Officer (VRO) system without consulting stakeholders. He stated that villagers prefer having an officer at the local level to handle land issues. To address this, the government plans to recruit 1,000 surveyors from the VRO cadre through a written test.
Housing Initiatives and Criticism of Past Governance
Srinivas Reddy accused the BRS leaders of spreading false propaganda to tarnish the government’s image. He compared the housing initiatives of the Congress and BRS governments, pointing out that the Congress government (2004-2014) built 25 lakh houses, whereas the BRS government (2014-2023) only completed 63,000 out of the 1.52 lakh double-bedroom houses it had tendered.
The Minister assured that the incomplete houses from the previous government would be finished within a month and distributed to eligible beneficiaries. Additionally, those with house sites are being provided with 4.5 lakh houses on 400-yard plots.
