Bhu Bharati Portal Not Yet Fully Operational, Difficulties in Land Transactions Persist

The long-awaited Bhu Bharati portal for integrated land management in Telangana is not yet fully operational. According to a report by The Hindu, although nearly a year has passed since the government issued the gazette notification for the Telangana Bhu Bharati (Record of Rights in Land) Act, 2025, users engaged in land transactions are not receiving full services through this portal.

Due to the incompleteness of the new portal, the Revenue Department is currently relying on the old Dharani software. It is being used by modifying its modules as per requirements. Senior officials stated that some difficulties of the Dharani portal have been resolved, such as the inability to accept more than one complaint in a single application, which has now been fixed. However, the problem of server crashes persists, as the system cannot withstand the transaction load.

A senior official told The Hindu that the development of the new portal is in its final stages. Most amendments according to the Bhu Bharati Act have been made and released for public use. The National Informatics Centre (NIC), which was initially assigned the responsibility of the continuous operation of the Dharani portal, has now been tasked with developing the new portal. The portal is likely to become operational soon after several tests are completed.

Interestingly, technical issues in land-related services have continued for nearly the last two decades. Whether it was the past Webland portal, the problem-ridden Dharani portal, or the current Bhu Bharati portal, the difficulties persist. Experts had made several suggestions to accept physical applications, but these have not been considered by the government so far.

The government had conducted a special campaign and organized revenue sabhas on an experimental basis in some mandals to receive complaints through physical applications, receiving over 8 lakh applications and a positive response. However, this process has currently been suspended, causing difficulties for farmers. A legal expert stated that despite frequent complaints about problems in the process, farmers are told to submit their grievances through Mee Seva centres. He added that since Telangana and former Andhra Pradesh are leaders in digital land transactions, physical applications are not being accepted.

Currently, one of the main problems faced in land transactions is the mismatch between the land held by farmers and the entries in the records. The previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government had run a land record update programme for a short period, but this problem was not fully resolved during the programme, which lasted for one month before the launch of Dharani. Consequently, errors in the land ownership area are creating difficulties for both land owners and Revenue Department officials, as they are finding it hard to correct these discrepancies even after field visits.