Dharani: Panacea for all land disputes : Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao

 Dharani: Panacea for all land disputes

Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao

The Pioneer (25-09-2020)

In the good old days when it was supposed that the life and living conditions were better than the immediate period that followed, there was no concept of somebody owning any land. The whole expanse belonged to the state. Whoever was capable of tilling the land to the extent possible depending on once own capabilities was in possession of that particular piece.

However, with passing of time, possessiveness started pervading giving place to selfish interests where the thought of ‘I’ and ‘Mine’ brewed. Then came the organized farming and also realization of value for land both in the form of monitory and status. With the adventure of modern market, the value of land and the produce from it gained market value and naturally land ownership in different forms emerged over a period. Over centuries, land ownership patterns changed.

There was a phase where land ownership meant physically possessing the land. With the advent of absentee land ownership, possession of the land documents on one’s name conferring the right over the land became the order of the day. Then came the phase, where both possessing land as well as documents became the right. Over the centuries, land disputes often turned to bloody conflicts, criminal offences and prolonged court cases. The main reason was actual possession of land and entry in the records will be on two different persons. This would become the cause for dispute.

Over the past three years, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao and team of senior bureaucrats, experts, legal advisors have been exercising with a Nobel and extremely difficult task of settling the land related disputes once and for all. Beginning in this direction was made through updating and purification of land records. The in-depth exercise was also done to find an everlasting solution which would ultimately lead to the conclusive ownership rights to the people. This resulted in passing the New Revenue Act. Among a host of reforms, the new Revenue Act is expected to herald, is the most prominent and much needed reform namely the launch of Dharani Web Portal. Dharani would permanently put an end to the land disputes, litigation besides fixing the land rights forever.

It is pertinent here to recall what the CM said while talking about the new Revenue Act and the Dharani Site. He said ever since organised farming began in the history of mankind about 6000 years ago, 95 percent of people were eking out a living on land and land related activities. There were several experiments which have been done for hundreds of years in our country and even today there are several issues related to the land.

In our country, since the days of First Five-year Plan, Planners have been advocating proper maintenance of land records as the basis of good administration. This was reiterated in the Second Plan and Third Plans. The Sixth Plan envisaged the complementation and updation of land records from 1980 to 1985. According to the Seventh Plan document the land records form the base for all land reform measures and therefore, regular periodic updating of land records is essential in all states. The Eighth Plan (1992-1997) and the Ninth Plan (1997-2002) have also envisaged the fulfillment of all five-year principles of National Land Reforms Policies that is the abolition of intermediaries, tenancy reforms with security to actual cultivators, redistribution of ceiling, surplus land consolidation of holdings and updation of land records. Subsequently in the 73rd Amendment to the constitution it has been mentioned that computerization of land records is an essential step to achieve decentralized planning and effective administration. All these remained on paper.

As the Chief Minister pointed out, none of the past government’s for reasons best known to them ever bothered to integrate IT into the Revenue matters. This led to largescale corruption, emergence of the land mafia, enmity between the revenue officials and the poor. Telangana state has 2.75 Crore acres land mass. Of this, the cultivable land is 1.65 Crore. There are about 66.56 Lakh acres of forestland in the State. There are other categories of land such as non-agriculture lands. The proposed Dharani web portal would have data on two categories of land, agriculture and non-agriculture lands. With one click one can know the category of the land in question.

The entire land transaction can be done within five to 10 minutes; registration, mutation and final documents of the land would be ready. Details regarding the land transaction would be available on a click and up to date. Details regarding the crop loans taken, loans raised pledging the land would also be posted on the portal. This will put an end to corruption while seeking the Encumbrance certificate. Bank authorities also can check the land details online. This would become the mother of all recrods. Anybody can access the data from anywhere in the world. They cannot tamper with the records but can view, download the data. To protect such a vital data, backup mechanism and Disaster Management technology are used.

Under the New revenue Act no officer at any level is given discretion power. No body would need to run from pillar to post in the offices. The land rates for the entire State will be fixed and available in the portal. The entire registration process would be completed after submitting necessary documents. Land records would be updated accordingly on real-time basis and the MROs will have no discretionary powers whatsoever. The portal would allow anyone to check land details of the State from any part of the country. The portal also provides encumbrance details of the land and the citizen need not apply for it separately.

Hence the Chief Minister has already instructed the officials concerned to register houses, plots, apartment Flats and other non-agriculture properties of people, in rural and urban areas, which are not yet registered online so far within 15 days. He wanted that officials from all levels in Panchayat Raj and Municipal departments should cent percent register on line all the properties, which are not registered on line before the Dharani Portal becomes available for registration transactions. The CM instructed the officials to give total information to the people to help them register their properties online. The CM wanted officials to take the necessary precautions to make the maintenance of land records cent percent transparent through the Dharani Portal.

Dharani would be managed as a single source of truth for all land parcels and discharge all land related functions in an integrated, efficient and effective manner with all actions on a near real time basis. Dharani would also offer a GIS system, which provides visual representation of the land record data.

Hence, Dharani Portal is the key player in the New Revenue Act and it would be like a catalyst to make land related matter, from registration, mutation, ownership rights, data on the property more fool-proof and maintain the records in a transparent way. Dharani would ultimately also help in a big way to give conclusive rights on property, there by eradicating the land disputes, litigations of agriculture, non-agriculture properties forever from the Telangana State.

Dharani portal is thus designed to serve as a panacea for all land disputes, making Telangana’s revamped revenue set-up a model for other states.

(With VJM Divakar)