HYDERABAD: IT was meant to be a transparent integrated land records management system that was aimed at revolutionising the land reforms in the State. However, Dharani, which has been touted as the first of its kind one-stop-online portal, launched in October 2020 to ensure “hassle-free” registrations soon turned into a “free-hassle” land records management system not just for farmers and land owners but also for the officials. The portal instead of helping in clearing the existing land disputes is triggering new ones to the dismay of all concerned.
It is also being used as a tool to either include privately owned lands in prohibitive category so that they can be claimed as government lands or turn government lands into private ones, both of which in turn open a channel for gross irregularities. While the Dharani dashboard maintains obscurity on the number of applications received, it is learnt that there are about 10 lakh applications under various categories pending with the portal.
The other major issue with the portal is that it has no window to apply for several issues, including change of passbook, Sadabinama registrations, boundary disputes, correction in name, extent and nature of land.In the absence of such a facility, which would have taken the number of applications into a few lakhs, several aggrieved landowners have no clue on whom to approach to get their issues resolved.
The number of pending applications are proliferating as some of the services were authorised only by District Collectors.“When there are thousands of applications with each Collector, he or she needs to give biometric authentication to either approve or reject it. In such a scenario, how many applications can the Collector clear considering he or she will busy with various other works,” wonders V Bhargavi, an activist from Kisan Mitra NGO.
As the farmers cannot directly approach the Collectors, they are forced to rely on middlemen, data entry operators, local political leaders and shelling out huge sums of money, the activist adds.In the old revenue records, the names of the new buyers of land parcels were not changed immediately after the registrations as it involved different departments. Due to which the names of the previous owners of the lands continued in Revenue records and the same featured in the Dharani portal too. This phenomenon is leading to conflict between two parties as the previous owners started claiming title over them.
Moreover, the mutation certificates are being issued with a digital signature of the Tahasildars concerned. This has worried the Tahasildars and low-rung Revenue department officials.“The Tahasilders concerned will be held liable in court matters, if there are any,” says Vanga Ravinder Reddy, the president of Telangana Revenue Employees Services Association.He demanded that the mutation certificates be issued either with the Collector’s name or to authorise Tahasildars to do it. He added that after the abolition of VROs system there are only Tahasildars and around two Revenue Inspectors in every mandal office to verify the land claims.
“How can two to three people physically verify the land claims under T33 application (prohibited lands) when there are a myriad number of applications,” TRESMA president wonders, demanding the government to provide support staff to deal with such issues.
Highlighting a key drawback of Dharani portal, Ravinder Reddy said that some of the government lands are not marked under prohibited category. “Taking advantage of this, the people are venturing into the office demanding to register the government property. The government should give discretionary power and time to decide on whether to register the property or not,” he says. Repeated attempts by this newspaper to reach out to Chief Secretary and Special Chief Secretary (Revenue, Stamps & Excise) Somesh Kumar has evoked no response.
Registration fee not being returned
The woes of Dharani users are endless as the paid towards registration fee at the time of slot booking is not being returned them in the event of cancellation of slot allocated