Civil Society urges Telangana government to pause property survey

Hyderabad: City-based Civil Society Forum Force comprising retired bureaucrats on Wednesday demanded the Telangana Government to withdraw the non-agricultural property record (NAPR) survey under the Dharani forthwith and said that the entire official process mainly collection of data from people was fraught with potential assault on the rights of the citizens. The forum said that certain information obtained in utter disregard of the ruling of the apex court of the land, inviting contempt of the court.

The Force member and former TSPSC member TS Vivek said that officials claiming to be employees of GHMC /local bodies are visiting households armed with a form and seeking a wide variety of information citing the purpose as uploading data on Dharani to issue non-agricultural property record (NAPR).

He said the officials are clueless about the law under which the information is sought. The information sought by them, among other things, pertains to (1) Mode of acquisition of property (2) caste (3) Aadhar number (4) family members and their Aadhar numbers.

The functionaries on the survey job are also insisting on disclosing mode of acquisition of property. This is yet another contentious piece of information sought by the government. He insisted that information about caste, mode of acquisition of property, Aadhar (except where it is necessary) be expunged from the survey form only to assuage the anxiety of the wary citizens.