Telangana landowners face fresh hurdles on Bhu Bharati portal

Telangana landowners are struggling to correct errors in their property records as Bhu Bharati restricts the correction facility to pilot villages. Persistent server outages, rejected applications and discrepancies in land records have added to their problems, raising questions about the portal's reliability

Hyderabad: Landowners seeking changes and corrections in land classification, extent, names and other particulars, are unable to access the correction option on the Bhu Bharati portal, with the government restricting it to pilot villages where a re-survey is under way. The glitch has left property owners waiting for a basic service the government had promised to make easier.

The Bhu Bharati portal, introduced by the Congress government to replace the previous BRS regime’s Dharani system and resolve its alleged flaws, has been struggling to fix the newly noticed flaws and instead, creating new hurdles for landowners. The portal which is frequently reporting server outages, has been unable to carry out correction of errors since the second week of October.

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When users select the correction option, the portal has been displaying a message that the service was unavailable and limited to pilot villages. Farmers and landowners from other villages, including those approaching MeeSeva centres, have no clarity on when the option will be restored.

The Revenue Department is conducting a re-survey in two villages in every mandal under a pilot project. The exercise is under way in 2,720 villages across Telangana, while the remaining 8,234 villages are to be covered in phases. Landowners outside the pilot areas are thus left without an immediate online facility to rectify errors in their records.

Over the last three months, frequent server outages and software glitches are adding to their woes. Farmers, property owners, tahsildars, joint sub-registrars and MeeSeva operators reported disruptions during slot booking, stamp duty payments, document uploads, citizen logins and downloading of encumbrance certificates.

Even after entering the correct login credentials and OTP, users are often failing to access the portal. Prolonged loading screens, unexpected logouts and uncertainty over whether transactions have been completed have become common complaints.

The portal reportedly displays server-busy messages and Error 402, sometimes remaining inaccessible for several days. Users have also pointed to a contrast between services functioning at the Chief Commissioner of Land Administration (CCLA) office and persistent problems in rural areas, raising questions about the portal’s reliability and monitoring.

Administrative shortcomings are equally serious. In Medchal district, more than 8,000 of around 15,201 applications seeking resolution of issues relating to succession, mutation, prohibited properties, the 22-A list and new passbooks were reportedly rejected recently. Farmers alleged that several applications were turned down without field verification or seeking clarifications. At a Prajavani programme on October 26, District Farmers’ Federation president Sanjeeva Reddy sought a seven-day opportunity for applicants to submit additional documents before rejection. Farmers have also demanded that tahsildars disclose reasons for rejecting applications.

Errors in survey numbers, inclusion of dispute-free properties in prohibited lists and discrepancies in land acquisition records have further complicated matters. In some cases, even when only a portion of a survey number is acquired for a government project, the entire survey number is reportedly shown as acquired, preventing owners from transacting the remaining land.

In August this year, Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy blamed officials and employees for the errors in the Section 22-A prohibited properties list, and assured to resolve the issue within a month. However, the issue remains unsolved and giving nightmares to genuine landowners.

The problems raise questions about whether the government has addressed the software limitations it cited while criticising Dharani. Several technical and operational complaints appear to have persisted despite the change in portal and assurances of a revamped system. In some instances, landowners have reportedly received slot-booking and payment messages months after their transactions were completed.

The Congress government made Dharani’s alleged irregularities a major political issue and promised that Bhu Bharati would decentralise decision-making by empowering Collectors and RDOs to resolve land disputes. However, instead of resolving the problems associated with Dharani, Bhu Bharati appears to have created fresh hurdles for property owners.