Minister Ponguleti announces Bhoodhaar card distribution after local elections

Telangana Revenue, Housing, and Information & Public Relations Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy said that the state government has rebuilt the “collapsed and highly corrupted” revenue system of the last decade within just two years to make it more citizen-friendly. Addressing the media at Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Telangana Secretariat on Wednesday, he announced several key reforms in land administration.

Minister Ponguleti said that Bhoodhaar cards - prepared as part of the Bhubharati land record modernization initiative - will be distributed to citizens immediately after the Model Code of Conduct for local body elections ends.

He added that under the directions of Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, the government is integrating the Revenue, Survey, and Registration departments under a single digital platform. A unified application providing all land-related information is expected to be launched by the end of January.

The Minister stated that the National Informatics Centre (NIC) is developing a completely new digital framework to replace the Dharani system.

A state-wide resurvey is underway, covering 2.29 crore survey numbers, all of which will receive unique Bhoodhaar numbers. In 413 villages where earlier maps were unavailable, survey work has now begun. Five villages taken up as pilot projects have completed resurvey and have prepared Bhoodhaar cards. In the second phase, resurvey preparations are underway in 373 villages, followed by a third phase covering 70 villages per district.

To speed up land dispute resolution, the state will set up special Land Tribunals. Ponguleti said all eligible pending land applications received so far will be resolved by the end of January. A forensic audit is already underway in two districts to uncover irregularities committed by the previous government, and strict action will follow based on the findings.

When the new government took charge, 2.45 lakh Dharani applications were pending. All of them have now been cleared, the Minister said. Another four lakh applications received over subsequent months were also resolved.

As promised during elections, the Dharani portal was shifted from foreign firm Terasis to the state-run NIC, bringing the land records of 1.56 crore acres under secure government control.

Through the Bhubharati Revenue Sadassus, officials visited villages directly and collected over 9 lakh applications from citizens in three phases. Clearance of these applications is in progress.

To improve field-level operations, the government reorganized 10,954 revenue villages into clusters and appointed Gram Panchayat Village Revenue Officers (GPVOs). Over 4,000 licensed surveyors have already been trained and deployed, and another 3,000 surveyors will join service from December.

Slot booking and Aadhaar-based e-signature systems have been introduced across 144 Sub-Registrar Offices to eliminate long queues and reduce processing time. The government also plans to build corporate-level modern Sub-Registrar Offices in the near future.

Responding to BRS criticism of the HILT policy, Minister Ponguleti accused a former municipal minister of taking bribes and converting large tracts of land into residential zones for associates during the previous regime. He announced that the list of such land conversions will soon be made public.