Panel on Dharani to start examining problems of the portal from January 17

Crucial meeting on January 17 to discuss revamp of Dharani portal, addressing issues and exploring solutions for land transactions.

A crucial meeting of the committee constituted on the Dharani portal, acclaimed as the one-stop solution for land-related transactions by the previous BRS Government, will be held on January 17.

The meeting will evolve modalities on the way forward with regard to the portal which drew flak from several sections, farmers in particular. The new Congress Government had therefore decided to go for a total revamp of the portal and replace Dharani with Bhumata rectifying the lapses in the existing system that are leading to teething troubles in the land registration processes.

The government had constituted a five-member committee chaired by senior Congress leader M. Kodanda Reddy and retired bureaucrat Raymond Peter, land laws expert M. Sunil Kumar and retired special grade Deputy Collector B. Madhusudan as members. The Chief Commissioner of Land Administration has been made the member convenor of the committee.

The committee has decided to meet on January 17, the deadline set for the departments concerned to furnish information relating to Dharani. “Once the information is received, we will work out the modalities on how to go about in the coming days,” a committee member told The Hindu.

It was accordingly decided to go with an “open mind” in studying the functioning of the portal and explore ways to resolve the issues that cropped up in the operation of Dharani. The members are of the opinion that it will take some time to examine all aspects of Dharani and hence, it has been decided to submit interim reports on different aspects from time to time.

“Preparation of the main report and the recommendations will take time. We will be submitting the interim report relating to aspects that can be addressed easily in the interest of buyers/sellers of the land,” the member said.

The portal launched by former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on October 29, 2020, has been plagued with problems from day one with complaints pouring in on its functioning. These include patta lands in possession of owners being put in the prohibited list, removal of names in the enjoyment column and replacing them with those of pattadars, mismatch between the extent of lands in records and actual field dimensions and absence of provision for registering lands in the name of multiple owners.