Hyderabad: Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy on Saturday alleged that Dharani portal misuse under the previous BRS government facilitated the grabbing of lakhs of acres for personal gain. Speaking in the Legislative Assembly, Ponguleti said the Congress government’s ongoing revenue reforms aimed to protect citizens’ properties and land rights.
The Minister made the allegations during a short-duration discussion on lands prohibited under Section 22-A. He accused the previous BRS administration of exploiting Telangana’s resources for private benefit.
“For a decade, benefits were confined to the family and relatives of former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao,” Ponguleti alleged. He also accused KCR of presiding over widespread land irregularities after retaining the Revenue portfolio during his second term.
Ponguleti alleged that the previous government had treated Telangana’s 2.49 crore acres as private property. Moreover, he accused BRS leaders of avoiding Assembly debates as details of their alleged actions emerged.
Dharani portal misuse caused problems for farmers: Minister
Ponguleti also criticised the previous government for handing over management of the Dharani portal to what he described as a bankrupt foreign company. He claimed that control of the portal enabled registrations to take place at midnight. At the same time, he said systemic errors in Dharani created serious difficulties for thousands of farmers.
According to the Minister, affected farmers were forced to run from pillar to post to resolve land-related problems. He further claimed that the situation had resulted in hundreds of suicides. Ponguleti also highlighted deficiencies in existing revenue records. He said maps were unavailable for 387 villages in the state.
The government had therefore launched a comprehensive land survey to correct historical errors in revenue records, he said. According to Ponguleti, it was the first such comprehensive survey in nearly 125 years.
The Minister also detailed the progress made in resolving applications connected with land records. “We have cleared over five lakh applications combined from the former Dharani portal and the new Bhu Bharati system,” he said.
Ponguleti added that applicants in unresolved cases had received formal notifications explaining the reasons for their applications remaining pending. The government had already completed a pilot land survey covering 70 revenue villages in each district, Ponguleti said.
Following the pilot exercise, authorities had started issuing pattadar passbooks to landowners. The government planned to extend the survey process across Telangana. The Minister said the comprehensive statewide land survey would be completed within the next 18 months.
He linked the survey and the Bhu Bharati system to the government’s efforts to correct problems associated with land administration. The reforms were also intended to safeguard property ownership and land rights. Ponguleti maintained that Dharani portal misuse during the previous government had created widespread irregularities and difficulties for landowners.
He said the government was now addressing those problems through application disposal, land surveys and corrections to revenue records. The statewide survey would also seek to address gaps such as the absence of maps for 387 villages.