Panel on Dharani to gather inputs from all Collectors

Hyderabad: As the State Assembly budget presentation approaches, the Dharani committee, led by M Kodanda Reddy, intensifies efforts, gearing up to submit an 'interim report.' The committee plans to convene a meeting with select District Collectors from various regions in the State to evaluate grievances and propose remedial measures.

The four-member committee held its third meeting on Monday at CCLA (Chief Commissioner of Land Administration) office to chalk out strategies for coming up with a report at the earliest. Besides speaking to Collectors, the panel will also take feedback from different sources including from those affected at grass-root levels and social media, besides officials from Revenue, Registration and Stamps and Agriculture. It will also be reviewing the problems which arose from Meeseva Kendrams. Besides this panel members will hold detailed interaction with officials of allied departments of the CCLA. Prior to the submission of a comprehensive report, the team will study the possible changes under the legal framework.

Amongst the issues which were discussed in the committee include the key issues like discontinuation of involvement of the ‘foreign company’ which has been entrusted with maintaining records online. “In the meeting with officials Chief Minister was informed that the official contract with the company was over, but it was continuing for time being,” informed Kodanda Reddy, while briefing to media persons.

Reiterating that lakhs of farmers were affected ever since the Dharani became functional, he clarified that the panel will come up with its report in phases and for now the ‘interim report’ is the priority.

Raymond Peter, retired bureaucrat and a key member of the panel said that since the primary focus was purification of the records, the panel will also be studying each and every module of Dharani. He, who has supervised computerisation of departments including Road Transport Corporation (RTC) felt that Dharani has loopholes as all the transactions are not captured. To explain he cited Google pay, where the user not only gets a message from Google pay, but also from the Bank following deduction of money. “There is no specific reply from Dharani software as to why a particular application was rejected,” he pointed out.

Another member, M Sunil Kumar, a law expert, explained how scores of cases landed in the High Court following Dharani implementation. “Digitisation has caused unclear transactions and there are grievances aplenty at village level”, he said.