Panel Recommends Bhumata Portal Replacing Dharani

Hyderabad: A five-member committee, constituted by the Congress government to review issues concerning the Dharani land portal, has recommended its replacement with the Bhumata portal by amending the Record of Rights (RoR) Act, 2020, citing several loopholes in the current Act introduced by the BRS government.

The committee submitted 32 recommendations to improve the land administration system, categorised into short-term, medium-term, and long-term measures. Six recommendations were for immediate action, 16 for medium-term implementation, and 10 for long-term changes, official sources said.

The committee, which submitted its report to the state government, recommended that the Bhumata portal should be managed by a government agency, unlike the Dharani portal, which was managed by a private firm under the BRS government. It recommended that the management be entrusted to one of the following entities: the Centre for Good Governance (CGG), the National Informatics Centre (NIC), or TG Online.

The BRS government had initially awarded the management of Dharani to IL&FS through a bidding process in 2018. Over time, IL&FS sold its majority stake to TerraCIS Technologies Ltd (TTL), which later sold its stake to Falcon SG Holdings, a company based in the Philippines. This shift in ownership raised security concerns, particularly over sensitive data like Aadhaar, bank accounts, and land records of farmers being handled by a foreign entity.

Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy ahd expressed serious concern about foreign companies maintaining critical data related to land records. He directed revenue officials to inquire how land records came under the purview of a private firm, questioning the process that allowed the original bidding company to change its name. The Chief Minister pointed out that IL&FS, which won the bid for Rs 116 crore, later sold its shares for Rs 1,200 crore, raising further suspicion.

The Dharani committee was formed on January 9 by the Congress government. It included Congress Kisan Cell vice-president M. Kodanda Reddy, retired IAS officer and former chief commissioner of land administration (CCLA) Raymond Peter, NALSAR University faculty and land law expert M. Sunil Kumar, retired special-grade collector B. Madhusudan, and CCLA Navin Mittal.

Replacing the Dharani portal with the Bhumata portal was a central campaign promise made by the Congress in the 2023 Assembly elections. The committee toured several districts, held consultations with stakeholders, and interacted with farmers who had faced difficulties under the Dharani system. The consultations were extensive, involving village visits and discussions with revenue officials across different levels.

For land records reform

The Kodanda Reddy committee on the Dharani portal has made the following reforms, including the setting up of a land governance innovations and legal support cell.

Medium-term

System that accepts manual applications for land grievances, which would later be digitised.

Single grievance module in the Bhumata portal, to replace the multiple modules in Dharani portal.

Restoration of community paralegal programme in the rural development department to help farmers resolve their land disputes

Village youth to be engaged in tasks such as verifying land ownership and identifying land problems.

Enactment of land disputes resolution Act to streamline the process of resolving land disputes within a time frame.

State and district-level revenue tribunals to be set up to expedite the resolution of land issues.

Consolidate land laws into a single legislation.

Update list of prohibited properties, correct inaccuracies in land records.

Implement Land Licenced Cultivators Act, 2011, issue loan eligibility cards to farmers, and appoint local land administration officers.

long-term reforms

Digitize of old land records, including setwar, khasra pahani, and pahanis

Conduct regular land assessments.

Set up Land Academy to enhance the skills of revenue officials

Title guarantee system to ensure the security of land ownership.