The Revanth Reddy government in Telangana is reportedly set to take a major decision, weighing the formation of a vigilance inquiry or a special investigation team to conduct a full-scale probe into land irregularities carried out through the Dharani portal. With fresh scandals and technical loopholes in the Dharani system surfacing almost daily, the government is treating the matter with utmost seriousness. It has emerged that lakhs of acres of land changed hands without the knowledge or consent of the actual owners.
A report by a prominent Kerala-based security audit firm exposed shocking irregularities in the Dharani portal. Normally, registration requires the landowner’s fingerprint or an OTP sent to their mobile number, but the audit found that special software was used to bypass these mandatory checks entirely, allowing registrations to be altered in the names of others without the knowledge of owners living abroad or elsewhere.
Of nearly 8 lakh land transactions audited, officials found major discrepancies in around 22,000 registrations. Even more alarming, non-existent “ghost IDs” were created to arbitrarily alter records for lakhs of acres, with computer clocks rolled back to backdate registrations.
With solid evidence now in hand, the government is planning a high-level probe to identify those involved, the software used, and the masterminds behind the scam, with official orders expected soon.