Dharani leaves people in awe

The consummate ease with which revenue officials have now been conducting land transactions in a matter of minutes using the portal has left the farmers speechless.

Hyderabad: Shock, disbelief and then a broad smile! This has been the sequence of emotions running through the minds of people, most of them farmers, who have been visiting tahsildhar offices across the State for registration, mutation or gifting of lands, post Dharani going live on November 2.

The consummate ease with which revenue officials have now been conducting land transactions in a matter of minutes using the portal has left the farmers speechless.

Be it Begari Anuradha, who received a gift of over one acre from her uncle in Palda village of Nizamabad rural mandal, Charan Raj, who bought a piece of land a few months ago in Kandi mandal in Sangareddy district only to be put off by the complex process then existing, or Basaraveni Venkatesham, of Venkatapur in Velgatur mandal in Jagitial district, a person with ‘experience’ in land transactions in the past, they were all praise for the one-stop unique portal that is aimed at making the entire process transparent and easy, besides eliminating official discretion that often led to graft.

And the time taken for the processing? Most transactions, according to the farmers themselves, have been carried out in an unbelievably short time of 10 to 15 minutes! Compare this with months and sometimes years that registration or mutation used to take in the past, and the efficiency and transparency of the new system of land management in Telangana is there for everyone to see.

“I was surprised when the tahsildhar handed over a copy of the pattadar passbook for one acre, 5 guntas of land that my uncle gifted me. The entire process took just 10 minutes and I was told that I will receive the original pattadar passbook by post within a week,” a beaming Anuradha told ‘Telangana Today’.

She also recalled how her family spent three months running around revenue offices a few years ago when they purchased a piece of land. “Dharani is indeed a gift to the people and a farmer-friendly initiative of Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao,” she said.

In the case of Charan Raj from Barkatpura in the city who bought a piece of land in Kandi mandal in neighbouring Sangareddy district a few months ago, the very thought of going through the cumbersome registration process and waiting in a queue for his turn was enough to make him postpone the exercise.

Once Dharani was launched and went live, Charan Raj easily logged into the Dharani portal and booked a slot for registration. He went to the Kandi Tahsildhar M Paramesh’s office on Wednesday afternoon and was done with the job in 20 minutes flat. A surprise awaited Charan Raj when Finance Minister T Harish Rao, who had dropped by at the tahsildhar’s office to see the portal’s functioning, personally handed over the documents to him, some bonus indeed!
Venkatesham’s experience was no different from the others. A past master at doing the rounds of revenue offices and greasing the palms of corrupt officials as much as he despised it, Venkatesham had recently purchased two pieces of land — eight guntas under survey no.

794/A/1 from one Myakala Venkavva and 12 guntas under survey no. 909/A from Lavangam Gangaiah. The two transactions took him less than an hour earlier this week.
Recalling his earlier experience, Venkatesham narrated how he had to spend time and money to register 5 1/2 acre of land that he purchased from a farmer five years ago.
“I had to engage a vehicle to take the seller’s family and witnesses to Jagitial sub-registrar’s office and spend on their breakfast and lunch twice since the sub-registrar was not available on the first day,” he told ‘Telangana Today’.

Venkatesham’s misery did not end there. He had to make the rounds of the Patwari’s office to get the pattadar passbook, that too after parting with Rs 3,000 in bribe. “This time around, I got my job done in under an hour,” a visibly pleased Venkatesham said.

These are but a few of such cases that are being narrated by people who have gone through the experience of land transactions on the portal. The common refrain of the people is that they no longer shudder at the thought of registering their land or getting mutation done, thanks to this novel and bold reforms initiative of the Chief Minister.

 

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