TG Brings New Act For Revenue Admin; Dharani To Be Junked

Hyderabad: The Congress government in Telangana has brought a new revenue law to streamline the system and do away with the Dharani portal system of the previous BRS government.

Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy on Wednesday tabled in State Assembly Telangana Bhu Bharati (Record of Rights in Land) Bill, 2024 in place of Telangana Rights in Land and Pattadar Passbooks Act, 2020 enacted by the previous government.

The minister told the House that the government is throwing Dharani into the Bay of Bengal as promised in the Assembly elections last year as many people suffered because of Dharani.

He clarified that Dharani is being abolished to ensure hassle-free land transactions and solve the problems faced by people. He said the new Act would rectify the lapses in the present legislation, which dealt a blow to the land administration.

The minister claimed that the Act would provide protection to the poor small landhold-ers who are in physical possession of the land but had no papers.

The new Act provisions for the creation of Bhudhar, records for all land parcels across the state, and issuance of Bhudhar cards for protecting the ownership rights as well as ensuring access to the land details with a click of a mouse. Bhudhar, like Adhaar, will give a unique identification number to every farmer. Lack of such a number for land parcels was leading to boundary disputes and was also proving a hurdle in maintaining revenue records.

The Act provides for a redressal mechanism for the rectification of entries in the Record of Rights and would create an appeal mechanism at different levels. It has a provision for adjudication of land entered into Part-B, over an extent of 18.26 lakh acres, for which digital signature was not done.

The legislation provides for the preparation of new Record of Rights after re-survey and updation of the existing records through a special program.