KODANGAL: Kajipur in Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy’s Kodangal Assembly constituency came alive with activity on Thursday with the entire state-level revenue department descending on the sleepy village.
The reason for this hustle and bustle: Kajipur served as the launchpad for an extensive awareness campaign among farmers and landowners about the newly enacted Telangana Bhu Bharati (Record of Rights in Land) Act, 2025.
The awareness campaign kicked off with Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy setting the tone by explaining the essence of Bhu Bharati. The Act replaces the Dharani system, established under the previous BRS government’s Telangana Rights in Land and Pattadar Pass Books Act, 2020.
The state government did not merely introduce legislation to overhaul land administration. It replaced a system allegedly riddled with discrepancies that made certain land transactions tortuous, cumbersome, and painful. The Congress government has now launched the new portal Bhu Bharati and is actively promoting awareness among farmers about its use, claiming it is far superior to the previous Dharani platform.
The Revenue minister said that the campaign is aimed at bringing revenue officials closer to the people, eliminating the need for farmers to run from pillar to post across various levels of the revenue department to resolve land transaction issues that used to plague the Dharani system in the past.
A revolution in land administration
The minister declared, “Bhu Bharati is a revolution in land administration. The Act under which the portal was built will serve as a role model for the country.” He assured farmers of complete safety and security for landowners and announced that the government would issue land titles to assigned landholders.
The Revenue department’s top officials in attendance included Telangana Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Commission member M Sunil Kumar (also known as Land Suneel), who played a pivotal role in drafting the Act, District Collector Sikta Patnaik, Additional Collector (Revenue) P Benshalom, the local revenue divisional officer and the tahsildar.
The collector and additional collector elaborated on the “revolutionary changes” introduced by the new Record of Rights (RoR) Act. Authorities received as many as 25 applications from Kajipur village alone. Sunil Kumar advised applicants to thoroughly study the Act and avoid relying solely on legal terminology to resolve their issues.
Explaining the Bhu Bharati Act’s provisions for time-bound corrections, the Revenue Minister shared that even BRS MLAs had privately admitted to facing issues with the Dharani portal. He recounted, “One BRS MLA told me his daughter’s name is Bharathi, but it was incorrectly recorded as Bharathi Reddy in the Dharani portal. Even BRS MLAs couldn’t get such errors rectified.”
The local response was overwhelmingly positive, with residents expressing optimism about the government’s proactive approach. A retired Indian Army soldier shared that unresolved land disputes had pushed him into politics. He criticised the previous regime’s inaction and praised the current administration’s initiative. Whether this model will become a blueprint for other states remains to be seen, but for the farmers of Kajipur, it marks a long-awaited beginning.