Telangana’s path to clean land records

A committee of experts has recommended that the Dharani portal — acclaimed as an one-stop solution for land-related issues — be replaced entirely. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

The Telangana State government is gearing up to address numerous complaints relating to land holdings, that are plaguing farmers since the launch of the ambitious integrated land record management systems in the form of the Dharani portal acclaimed as an one-stop solution for land-related issues.

A few months after coming to power, the Congress formed a committee of experts on land laws tasking it with studying the lapses in the functioning of Dharani and suggesting remedial measures. The committee recommended that the portal be replaced entirely and a new portal Bhumatha should be put in place.

The committee headed by senior Congress leader M. Kodanda Reddy and comprising Nalsar professor and land laws expert M. Sunil Kumar, former Chief Commissioner of Land Administration Raymond Peter, and others as members recommended repeal of the Telangana Rights in Land and Pattadar Passbooks Act 2020, popularly known as Record of Rights (RoR) Act, to ensure the protection of farmers’ rights. It has prepared the framework for the new Act and put it in the public domain for the first time seeking improvements to the proposed legislation from all the stakeholders.

Spree of problems

Launched in October 2020, the Dharani portal aimed to eliminate officials’ discretionary powers at various levels and ensured a system-based approach. Ahead of the launch of Dharani, the government took up land records updation programme and collected data from 10,823 villages.

Also read | Telangana’s Dharani portal has expedited registration process, but lacks transparency, says panel

This data has become crucial as farmers get input investment under Rythu Bandhu (farmers investment support scheme), and other benefits. Given the importance of the data, the Dharani portal’s functioning became crucial to the land rights of farmers and land owners. However, the situation at the field level was not as easy as the previous government projected.

The Dharani portal has brought along with it a spree of problems, such as farmers having possession of land without a patta (registered document), possessing patta without land or name in the records, and farmers’ names being present in the record, but without actual possession of either patta or land. There are instances where the entire survey numbers are missing from records making it difficult for farmers and officials to manage land records.

One of the major concerns about the previous Act was the absence of a grievance redressal mechanism and scope for making appeals to the authorities. Farmers with grievances had to pay fees seeking solutions to their problems, imposing a heavy burden. Since there was no grassroots-level grievance redressal mechanism, issues were escalated to District Collectors and the Chief Commissioner of Land Administration.

Enactment of the new RoR Act has become necessary as the previous Act enacted by the BRS government in 2020, replacing the 1971 legislation, has faced charges that consistent failures and loopholes continue to affect land transactions in rural areas. “There is no provision for appeal in the previous Act denying farmers an opportunity to air their grievances,” Mr. Kumar said.

The committee, accordingly, recommended that the government constitute a Land Governance Innovations and Legal Support Cell to assist it in taking up land governance reforms. In the medium term, it suggested a provision for receiving manual applications pertaining to grievances that could be hosted online subsequently with the application fee rationalised/exempted.

Interestingly, the committee suggested that services of village youth could be utilised for physical verification of lands, land records, and identification of land problems.

With the previous government abolishing the revenue administration at the village level, the committee favoured the appointment of persons at the village level for land administration so that the majority of the problems could be resolved.

The introduction of a new portal and the enactment of the new RoR Act apart, the government must ensure effective implementation at the field level failing which farmers will continue to face the problems they have been suffering for the past few years. It remains to be seen what mechanism the government will implement to avoid the recurrence of grievances.