Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao today held a review meeting on the Dharani portal at the Pragathi Bhavan, where he discussed various methods to improve its efficiency.
Rao expressed his satisfaction with the portal, claiming that it had made the state's land registration and mutation process a quick, hassle-free and corruption-free one.
He added that the fact that the portal had received 1.6 lakh applications since its launch was evidence of its success and popularity, and congratulated the registration officials on having completed the registration of 80,000 properties.
Preempting any criticism of the online registration system, the CM said that if there were any uncertainties regarding the registered agricultural lands, the district Collectors would address them within the next two months.
"The registrations must be carried out with utmost transparency under the supervision of the district Collectors, and any mutation applications should be processed on the basis of the registration documents that were issued for the lands before the launch of Dharani. The Collectors should also take into account the verdicts given by the relevant courts and tribunals when modifying applicants' land details," the CM added.
He also directed the concerned officials to work on further improving the land registration service, and to make the portal more user-friendly and comprehensive so that the farmers of the state could complete the registration and mutation of their lands easily.
The CM also asked the officials to accept the registration applications filed through the MeeSeva centres, and to resume the online slot-booking system for the convenience of the people.
Instructions to enable the registration of lease agreements through the portal were also issued.
Talking about the difficulties in registering Sada Bainama plots (unregistered rural lands), KCR said that the Collectors would have to examine the applications for the regularisation of such plots in order to finalise the ownership rights before registering them online.
"After the regularisation of the Sada Bainama plots, the details of the same should be registered on Dharani. Following this, the owners should be issued their Pattadar passbooks," he told the officials.
The CM then asked the officials to resolve the cases registered wrongly against the non-tribal property owners in areas where the Scheduled Areas Land Transfer Regulation Act 1959 (Amendment 1/1970), or LTR 1/70, had not been implemented, and to take measures to safeguard the property rights of the local STs in areas where the Act had been implemented.
In cases where the government and private properties had the same survey numbers, the Collectors were instructed to look into the matter to decide which lands belonged to the government and which were privately held, and to then register the lands accordingly.
Ministers K T Rama Rao, Vemula Prashanth Reddy and Talasani Srinivas Yadav, Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, CMO Principal Secretaries S Narsing Rao and Seshadri, Secretary to the CM Smita Sabharwal, MeeSeva CEO Venkateswar Rao, MLAs Balka Suman and Marri Janardhan Reddy, revenue affairs experts including retired IAS officers Ramaiah, Sundar Abnar and Rafat Ali, and Collectors Venkatramreddy, Hanumanth Rao, Prashant Patil and Narayan Reddy were among those present at the meeting.
The new land registration process in Telangana has been marred by constant delays and technical and administrative problems. This even prompted some Opposition leaders to demand that
the system be scrapped. Following the articulation of such demands, and the widespread criticism against the online registration system, the state government is now taking several steps to resume property registrations after a delay of more than two months.