HYDERABAD: The five-member panel formed to study the Dharani land portal brought in by the BRS government held its first meeting on Thursday, pointing out multiple flaws, including a lack of a legal framework, business rules and an appellate mechanism.
The committee, constituted by the state government, called for rectifications on an immediate basis and discussed ways to address the deficiencies in the Bhumata portal, which the Congress promised to replace Dharani with in the Assembly polls run-up in 2023.
The panel comprises Congress Kisan Cell vice president M. Kodanda Reddy, Chief Commissioner of Land Administration (CCLA) Naveen Mittal, former CCLA Raymond Peter, Nalsar University faculty and land laws expert M. Sunil Kumar and retired special-grade collector B. Madhusudan.
Official sources said that the panel was “shocked” to find out that the Dharani portal was being operated for more than three years based on circulars issued by the BRS government and lacked a proper legal framework, after it was brought in by amending the RoR (Record of Rights) Act in 2020.
“There is no appellate mechanism. There is no way revenue officials can resolve the grievances which are brought to their notice by the people. Affected people are forced to approach courts to resolve their grievances, including faults committed by revenue officials. This is the major drawback of the Dharani portal,” a source said.
Another major lapse in Dharani is that there was no role for revenue divisional officers and mandal revenue officers at the division level or mandal level to resolve grievances.
“Every grievance at village, mandal and revenue division level was being directed to district collectors, who are busy with several other activities and not paying attention to resolve these grievances. Collectors are also avoiding resolution of land issues with a fear that they may land in legal troubles as there is no proper legal framework for Dharani. Collectors are directing the grievances to CCLA office in Hyderabad,” the source said.
Speaking to mediapersons after the meeting, committee members Kodanda Reddy and Sunil Kumar said that they have initiated a preliminary exercise to identify the lapses in the Dharani portal and will meet again on January 18 to dwell on the issues.
“We will try to complete consultation process at the earliest and submit recommendations to the state government on how to address issues in Dharani portal. There are a whole lot of land issues in Dharani and we will come up with a solution to each of these issues,” Sunil Kumar said.
Kodanda Reddy said that the Congress was committed to fulfilling its election promise of resolving all the problems being faced by people due to the Dharani portal and coming up with a better alternative.
