The Government of Telangana is planning to replace the Dharani portal with a new ‘Bhumata portal’ in order to improve transparency and fix issues with land registration and ownership. A special committee will be formed, consisting of Ministers and top Revenue officials, to address the glitches in the current portal and make recommendations for the new user-friendly portal. Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy held a two-hour meeting with revenue officials to review the performance of Dharani and requested a detailed report within 10 days, including data on land transactions.
During the meeting, Revenue Special Secretary and CCLA Commission Naveen Mittal gave a presentation on Dharani. The Chief Minister inquired about the utilization of Central funds for land survey and digitalization of land records, as well as the release of Title guarantees. He also requested information on prohibited lands and encroachments. The Chief Minister expressed dissatisfaction with alleged irregularities in the Dharani portal during the registration process for agricultural and non-farm land. He instructed the Revenue department to hold monthly meetings at the Mandal Revenue offices to address public grievances.
The officials highlighted several challenges with Dharani, such as the absence of an Appellate Authority for rejected applications, non-refund of stamp duty if slots are cancelled, unavailability of Pahani for citizens, lack of clarity regarding officers’ responsibilities under the new Record of Rights (RoR) Act, and mistakes in the prohibited list. They proposed solutions including an application tracking system, time limits for resolving grievances, introduction of an Appellate Authority for rejected applications, a user-friendly portal for citizens and officers, and addressing land issues at the village level. They also suggested displaying land survey numbers with associated issues at the village level.
