HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Monday issued notices to the Chief Secretary, Special Chief Secretary, Principal Secretary (Revenue) and
Chief Commissioner of Land Administration, directing them to inform
the court what steps the government had taken to minimise the frequent
technical glitches in ‘Dharani’ portal.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice A. Rajashekar Reddy was hearing a PIL filed by T. Indra Prakash, an advocate practising in the High Court, seeking directions from the court to the Telangana government to continue with the old method of registration of properties as registrations through Dharani portal were literally stopped due to frequent technical glitches.
The petitioner drew the attention of the court to the hurdles being faced by farmers in selling or purchasing lands due to technical snags in Dharani portal. He said most of the lands were inserted in the list of the prohibited land, without evaluating the land details and classification.
While hearing the case, the court observed that “the Telangana government has taken up this project of Dharani portal without putting sufficient infrastructure in place, due to which the citizens are facing hardship.”
The court adjourned the case to November 22. Farmers and agricultural landowners have complained about glitches on the Dharani portal even a year after its inauguration. Farmers also alleged that due to the inefficiency of the government in streamlining the functioning of the portal, lakhs of landowners are in utter distress. Even issues pertaining to 20 lakh acres which were placed under the category of the prohibited land are yet to be addressed, they say.
Landowners say replies to complaints to the Dharani portal get vague replies such as “issue has been forwarded to the MRO Office”. But when the complainant meets the MRO they were being told that the issue has been referred to the district collector. Furthermore, the collector, when asked, says that it has been referred to the higher-ups in the government
