Members of the committee constituted by Telangana Government to study the functioning of the Dharani portal and resolve the huge pendency of applications, have started field visits to get first hand understanding of the situation at the grass root level.
As part of the exercise, starting with parts of Nalgonda district on Wednesday, the committee has started the interaction with tahsildars who have been entrusted with the preparation of reports relating to pending applications: the nature of applications received, reasons for pendency and related issues. Committee members M. Kodanda Reddy and land laws expert M. Sunil Kumar are visiting Dharani centres as well as interacting with farmers about the problems they are facing on account of Dharani portal.
The field visits come at a time when the special drive launched by the Government from March 1 to clear the pending applications is continuing. “The special drive is the beginning and we have to go a long way,” Mr. Sunil Kumar said. The field visits are part of the exercise to study the ground-level situation and make effective recommendations to the Government.
Mr. Sunil Kumar has been recommending a total revamp of Dharani to avoid inconvenience to landowners, farmers in particular, besides seeking a complete change in the record of rights act (The Telangana Rights in Land and Pattadar Passbooks Act, 2020) to make it farmer-friendly. “We have to make better recommendations in our report as there are several other issues that need to be looked into in the coming days,” he told The Hindu.
According to information reaching here, officials at different levels have so far cleared close to one lakh out of the 2.45 lakh pending applications since the launch of the special drive. A majority of these applications are said to be related to Sada Bainamas (land transactions on plain paper) which had been practice for long in the State.
Applications related to discrepancies in the extent of land and corrections in pattadar passbooks are also said to be higher. The absence of a grievance redressal mechanism and centralisation of power for rectifying the lapses in the district collector and CCLA level are said to be the main reasons behind the huge number of applications received since the launch of Dharani portal.
