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Revanth government to replace BRS’s land record system
The Congress government in Telangana on Wednesday announced the abolition of “Dharani”, an integrated land records management system, that was brought in by the previous BRS govt
The Congress government in Telangana on Wednesday announced the abolition of “Dharani”, an integrated land records management system, that was brought in by the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government, and introduced a new system called “Bhu Bharati.”
State revenue minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy tabled a new bill – Telangana Bhu Bharati (Record of Rights) Bill, 2024 - in the state assembly, seeking to revoke the earlier Telangana Rights in Land and Pattadar Passbooks Act, 2020, also known as “Dharani”, to ensure hassle free transactions.
“The Dharani land records portal has caused innumerable problems to people, as many of them complained of their land titles disappearing in the records. We have prepared the draft Bhu Bharati Bill after studying the record of the rights system in as many as 18 states. We kept it on the department website for 40 days to seek the opinions of MLAs and intellectuals, besides holding intense discussions in the district collectorates,” he said.
The proposed Bhu Bharati Bill has provision for creation of “Bhudhar”, record for all land parcels across the state. The land holders would be given “Bhudhar” cards on the lines of Aadhaar cards, for protecting the ownership rights as well as ensuring access to the land details with a click of mouse, he said.
The minister said the absence of a unique identification number for land parcels was leading to boundary disputes and was also proving a hurdle in maintaining revenue records. Hence, it was decided to create a unique land parcel identification number.
The bill provides for a redressal mechanism for rectification of entries in the Record of Rights and would create an appeal mechanism at different levels. It also has a provision for preparation of new Record of Right after re-survey and updating of the existing records. “This will help several landowners who complained of numerous mistakes creeping into their land records,” Reddy said.
The bill also provides for regularisation of “sada bainama”, land transactions done on plain paper, for which over 900,000 applications were received in the past. Besides creating a user-friendly and hassle-free online portal for maintaining the record of rights, the bill also aims at protecting the government lands.
Following requests from several members, assembly speaker G Prasad Kumar posted the discussion on the Bhu Bharati Bill to Thursday so that they could study the provisions and suggest amendments, if any.
In response to the new bill, BRS leaders said they would study the Bhu Bharati Bill and respond in the assembly on Thursday.
