BRS, Congress slug it out over Dharani portal

Hyderabad: The state Assembly on Thursday witnessed a war of words between the ruling BRS and the Congress on Dharani portal and land issues in the state.

Speaking in the Legislative Assembly, Congress MLA D. Sridhar Babu slammed the state government in the Assembly for introducing the Dharani portal in a haste, which has left thousands of farmers and landowners in dire straits for the past two years. However, the Telangana government has so far failed to take any corrective action, he alleged.

The state government was engaging in “real estate business” by forcibly acquiring assigned lands of the poor for the Hyderabad Pharma City project and other projects at lower prices and selling those same lands to industrialists at exorbitant prices. Further, he accused the government of purchasing lands for the Pharma City project for Rs 8 lakh per acre but allotted those same lands to industrialists for Rs 1.30 crore per acre. These accusations had triggered a heated exchange between minister K.T.Rama Rao and Sridhar Babu.

Rama Rao lashed out at the Congress party and its leader for promising to abolish the Dharani portal if they are voted to power. "Dharani portal is a revolutionary initiative and historical reform brought by the Telangana government in land administration as it addressed several problems. The entire registration process, including mutation, is being completed within 15 to 20 minutes. It had ended the role of and eliminated corruption. There may be few minor problems, but the government rectified several issues, and is ready to correct further if there are still any issues," he said.

Referring to TPCC chief A.Revanth Reddy's comments during his padayatra, Rama Rao asked the Congress party to clarify whether abolishing Dharani and demolishing Pragathi Bhavan was their party's agenda. "After the formation of Telangana state in 2014, nearly 30 lakh property documents were registered in six years prior to the launch of Dharani. In the last two years of Dharani launch, 24 lakh documents were registered which proves the success of Dharani," Rama Rao stated.