Telangana Govt defers Bhumata, RoR Act rollout

Hyderabad: The rollout of the new Revenue Act (RoR Act) has been postponed once again, as also that of the Bhumata portal, which was expected to replace the controversial Dharani portal.

The Cabinet, which was scheduled to approve the RoR Act and the Bhumata portal on October 26, decided to defer the implementation to address unresolved issues in the RoR Act draft. The earlier announced date for the launch of these two initiatives was October 30.

Sources said that Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and other Cabinet ministers identified the need for additional provisions, specifically for setting up revenue tribunals and revenue courts to expedite land dispute resolutions. They also discussed reinstating the Telangana Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act, repealed by the previous BRS government in 2016, as part of the revenue reforms.

Another significant point of discussion was the reintroduction of the village revenue officers (VROs) system, which was abolished by the BRS government in 2020. Many VROs were reassigned to different departments, but the Cabinet reportedly expressed interest in restoring their roles within the revenue department while preserving their seniority.

The Cabinet has directed revenue principal secretary Navin Mittal to address these matters and present revised proposals at its next meeting, likely in mid-November.