The sub-committee on the Dharani portal has identified 123 problems that have given sleepless nights to farmers and land buyers, and one of the biggest lacunae is the absence of an appellate authority at the lower level.
A senior official involved in the process told The Hindu that a majority of these 123 issues could be resolved at the mandal level or at the revenue division level itself rather than the Collector with whom the entire responsibility was laid. The very thought of reaching out to the Collector every time, even for small corrections, was intimidating for the farmers at the village level. The Mandal Revenue Officers (MRO) refusing to resolve the issues citing lack of powers or even access to the Dharani portal, has resulted in thousands of cases piling up for small errors.
The mutation issues could have been left with the lower-level officers and in case the government thought it was risky, it could have added another layer at the revenue division level. Even NALA conversion issues could have been left at the same level. The manual records were anyway available at their level, the official felt. The mismatch in physical records and the digitised version on the portal and some lands pushed into the prohibited list though the farmers have been tilling them for decades, have left the land owners hapless as they could not sell them even in emergency needs. The lack of an appellate authority that could solve the problems in a given time period complicated the process. Some issues have to be dealt with at the CCLA level and one could understand if the Collector and CCLA were made responsible for them but not everything could be left with the Collector.
The sub-committee came across the lapses during their interactions with farmers and also Collectors. The committee which will soon submit its preliminary report is likely to suggest changes in the technical, administrative, and legal aspects.
Some stakeholders, according to the committee members, have lost confidence in the Dharani portal and questioned the authenticity of people operating it as a lot of powers to meddle with the portal were vested with a private agency instead of the government. The big challenge is to restore that faith and the suggestions to be made will keep this in mind
