Hyderabad: The state cabinet on Friday decided to constitute a special enquiry team (SET) to conduct a comprehensive probe into alleged irregularities, land transactions and record manipulations linked to the Dharani portal and its successor, the Bhu Bharati portal.The inquiry will cover transactions carried out over nearly six years and examine allegations relating to land registrations, record alterations, govt land transfers and changes to prohibited land lists.Announcing the decision after the cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister A Revanth Reddy, revenue and housing minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy said the probe would scrutinise all suspicious transactions from the launch of the Dharani portal in Oct 2020 till July 17, 2026.“The Dharani portal came into effect on Oct 29, 2020. The cabinet decided that SET will thoroughly examine all suspicious transactions that have occurred since then to the transactions in Bhu Bharati till date (up to July 17), including land registrations, record and module modifications, and the transfer of agricultural, assigned, and govt lands and the prohibited list,” Srinivas Reddy told a media conference.Sharing details of the cabinet decision, the minister said the objective was to ascertain the facts behind allegations levelled over the years by both the Congress and opposition parties regarding the functioning of Dharani and Bhu Bharati.“The objective of the SET is to get clarity against allegations by the opposition, both by the Congress against Dharani and by opposition parties against the Bhu Bharati Act. Right from the day tenders were floated for Dharani to till date allegations by the opposition that lakhs of acres from the prohibited list are being allocated to various people, the SET will look into everything, including the role of NIC and other agencies involved,” he said.The minister said the govt had already identified more than 10,000 suspicious transactions through a forensic audit, prompting the cabinet to order a wider review of the system and records.The Cabinet decided to conduct a comprehensive review of digital records, login details, modifications made to records, official approvals, changes in land classification, and beneficiary details related to these land transactions, he said.The cabinet also decided to investigate the role of Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Limited–the agency responsible for managing the Dharani portal—as well as issues concerning the selection of the operating agency, the tender process, contract allocation, portal design, system architecture, and data security flaws, Srinivas Reddy said.The Congress govt had replaced Dharani with Bhu Bharati after modifying several modules to make land administration more farmer-friendly. However, the cabinet noted that alleged irregularities linked to the original software architecture and functioning of Dharani were continuing to surface.Among other key decisions, the Cabinet approved the formulation of a uniform tender policy for engineering works across all govt departments. The policy will cover the entire project cycle, from appraisal and land acquisition to tendering, execution and bill payments.The cabinet also cleared the formation of a high-level committee headed by the chief secretary to review and streamline project formulation, procurement, contract management and implementation processes.Srinivas Reddy said the decision was necessitated by the gradual dilution of GO 94 of 2003, the govt‘s foundational order governing tender procedures. Over time, individual departments introduced their own variations, resulting in cost overruns, delays and widening gaps between project estimates and actual expenditure.Sources said the cabinet also held detailed discussions on cost escalations in several irrigation projects due to delays, inflation and related factors. However, specifics of those deliberations were not disclosed during the media briefing.Unedited GFXThe following cabinet decisions were shared by the minister:The Cabinet also approved a proposal to amend the Telangana Municipalities Act, 2019, to enable the nomination of transgender persons as co-opted members in the elected bodies of municipal corporations across the state. The trnsgender person will be a co option member, in addition to already existing five co-option members for men and women.The Telangana Cabinet took a key decision regarding the management of Gram Panchayat funds. Currently, funds received by Gram Panchayats are required to be deposited in the government treasury. The Cabinet approved an amendment bill proposing to alter this rule, allowing these funds to be deposited in gram panchayats- nearby nationalized banks, cooperative banks, or post offices instead. The State Cabinet approved an amendment to the Telangana Panchayat Raj Act, 2018, in this regard.The Roads and Buildings (R&B) Department briefed the State Cabinet on the proposed alignments and station locations for three High-Speed Rail (HSR) corridors connecting Hyderabad to Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Chennai. A decision was taken to establish a rail hub near Shamshabad. The Centre has already given the green signal for bullet train routes connecting Hyderabad–Pune–Mumbai, Hyderabad–Bengaluru, and Hyderabad–Amaravati–Tirupati–Chennai.The State Cabinet approved the completion of the Mukteshwar Lift Irrigation Scheme (also known as ‘Chinna Kaleshwaram’). The Cabinet decided to complete this scheme to lift 4.50 TMC of water from the Godavari River at Kannepalli and provide irrigation to 45,000 acres in the Manthani constituency. After reviewing the work already completed, the Cabinet approved the necessary works to finalize the project.
