Think of a land records portal like a hospital’s patient database. Every patient’s history, prescriptions, allergies, and test results sit in one system. Now imagine the hospital launches a new database, migrates millions of records overnight, and then discovers that thousands of patients have been tagged with the wrong blood type. That is, roughly, what happened in Telangana.
The state built a portal called Dharani to manage every piece of land in its jurisdiction. Five years and lakhs of grievances later, it scrapped the system and replaced it with a new one called Bhu Bharati. The story of how Telangana went from one to the other tells you a lot about what can go wrong when you digitise land records at scale, and what property owners need to watch out for in the aftermath.
What Dharani Was Supposed to Do
On 29 October 2020, the BRS government (then TRS) launched the Dharani portal. The idea was ambitious: a single digital window for every land-related transaction in the state. Registrations, mutations, successions, encumbrance certificates, pattadar passbooks, land conversions. Everything.
To make this work, the government did something radical. It abolished the entire village revenue officer (VRO) system that had existed for decades. No more mandal-level officers processing mutations. No more village patwaris maintaining paper records. All decision-making power was concentrated at the District Collector level, and all transactions had to go through the portal.
The Telangana Rights in Land and Pattadar Pass Books Act, 2020, which came into force the same day, gave the system its legal backing. In its first year, the portal processed close to 10 lakh transactions and received over 5 crore hits. On paper, it was a success.
On the ground, it was a different story.
What Actually Went Wrong
The problems fell into three broad categories: data errors, design flaws, and security gaps. Each one was serious on its own. Together, they made Dharani one of the most controversial property digitisation projects in the country.
The data was wrong
When existing land records were digitised and loaded into Dharani, errors crept in at scale.
The biggest problem was land classification. Privately owned patta lands were listed as “prohibited” or “assigned land” on the portal. If your land showed up as prohibited, you could not sell it, transfer it, or mortgage it. You were locked out of your own property. An estimated 20 lakh acres of private patta lands were wrongly placed under the prohibited category, which swelled the overall prohibited list to over one crore acres out of Telangana’s total 2.5 crore acres. Over 60,000 grievances were filed about this single issue.
Then there was the co-ownership problem. Dharani had no provision to register land in the name of multiple owners. If three siblings inherited a plot from their father, only one name would appear. This is not a minor technicality. It affects mutation records, property tax, and the ability to sell.
Survey numbers were wrong. Land extents did not match sale deeds. The detailed Pahani records that revenue departments had maintained for decades were stripped down to skeletal digital entries. The “enjoyment column” that recorded who actually occupied the land was removed entirely.
The design made things worse
Dharani offered 33 different modules for various types of corrections and applications. Each had its own fee (Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,200). A farmer who needed to fix a wrong survey number had to figure out whether to use TM-3, TM-25, or TM-33. Pick the wrong one, and the application was rejected. No refund.
The Telangana High Court called this out directly. In D. Simhadrayya v. State of Telangana (2023), Justice K. Lakshman identified 21 systemic issues with the portal. The judgment described a case where an illiterate woman farmer from a rural area in Adilabad had her application rejected simply because she submitted it in the wrong module. Nobody told her which module to use.
Applications were rejected with a single word: “rejected.” No reasons given. No guidance on what to do next. And because the VRO system had been abolished, there was no local revenue officer to turn to. The only recourse was the District Collector, and if the Collector rejected your application, there was no appellate mechanism. Your next stop was the High Court.
Justice Lakshman observed that the actions of authorities were “causing severe hardship to the citizens who are constrained to approach this Court, thereby increasing the pendency of cases.” The system meant to reduce human interference was generating court cases.
The security gaps were alarming
The government ordered a code audit and statewide forensic probe of the Dharani system. The findings were not reassuring.
Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy described what the audit uncovered as “deliberately created flaws” rather than technical accidents. Login credentials had been deleted. Confidential access details went missing. Transaction data was rendered inaccessible. The portal had a “hidden” option that allowed land records to be concealed from public view.
And then there was the ownership question. The portal’s technical maintenance was handled by TerraCIS Technologies, formerly an IL&FS subsidiary. When IL&FS went bankrupt, TerraCIS was sold to Falcon SG Holding, a Philippine subsidiary of a Singapore-based investment firm, for Rs 1,275 crore. This meant the land records of crores of Telangana citizens were being managed by a company under foreign ownership. The arrangement came under investigation.
The court record shows what this meant in practice. In M/s Asian Tubes v. State of Telangana (2024), the High Court found that Dharani records had been altered without notifying the actual owner, in violation of a court order. The court declared the changes “illegal, null and void” and imposed a Rs 5 lakh penalty.
The Political Trigger
By the time Telangana went to elections in late 2023, Dharani had become a political flashpoint. Congress and BJP both criticised the portal. The BRS defended it.
Congress won. When they took power in December 2023, they inherited a system with 6.46 lakh pending grievances. Congress MP Rahul Gandhi alleged 20 lakh people were suffering because of the portal.
The new government began resolving pending cases (about 5.63 lakh were cleared) and simultaneously drafted replacement legislation. In December 2024, Revenue Minister Ponguleti introduced the Bhu Bharati Bill in the Assembly. Governor Jishnu Dev Varma gave assent in January 2025.
The Bhu Bharati portal launched on 14 April 2025, Dr B.R. Ambedkar’s birth anniversary. It was developed by NIC Telangana (not a private company), and went statewide by June 2025.
What Bhu Bharati Does Differently
The differences are not cosmetic. Bhu Bharati addresses most of the structural problems that made Dharani dysfunctional.
Fewer modules, clearer process. The 33 modules are gone. Bhu Bharati has 6 transactional modules and 5 informational ones. You do not need to guess which form to fill.
A grievance redressal chain that actually exists. Under Dharani, a rejected application was a dead end. Bhu Bharati provides a layered appeals structure: Tahsildar, then RDO, then District Collector, then the Chief Commissioner of Land Administration, and finally the Revenue Minister. Land Tribunals with free legal aid have been established as a statutory appellate body.
The Pahani is back to 11 columns. The skeletal Dharani records have been expanded. The enjoyment column is restored. Mode of acquisition is recorded. Cultivation details are back. The record now shows a fuller picture of each parcel.
No more hidden records. The option that allowed records to be concealed from public view has been eliminated.
Bhudhar: Aadhaar for land. Each parcel gets an 11-digit, GPS-confirmed unique identifier. Think of it as a fingerprint for your plot. It ties the record to a specific physical location, making it harder to swap or duplicate entries.
SMS at every step. Real-time notifications at each stage of a transaction. You know when something moves.
Bhu Mitra chatbot. An AI assistant built into the portal that guides you through processes. Not a replacement for a lawyer, but useful for basic navigation.
NRI module. A dedicated section for non-resident Indians. If you do not have Aadhaar, you can register using passport details and apply for a pattadar passbook.
Survey maps at registration. The upgraded “Integrated Bhu Bharati” version, being piloted since April 2026, mandates attaching survey maps to agricultural land registrations. This links the legal record to the physical land, closing a gap that Dharani never addressed.
Here is how the two systems compare on the issues that mattered most:
| Issue | Dharani | Bhu Bharati |
|---|---|---|
| Correction process | 33 modules, Rs 1,000+ each | 6 clear modules |
| Appeals if rejected | None (High Court only) | Tahsildar → RDO → Collector → CCLA → Land Tribunal |
| Land record detail | Minimal entries | 11-column Pahani with enjoyment and acquisition history |
| Hidden records | Allowed | Eliminated |
| Parcel identification | Survey number only | Bhudhar (GPS-confirmed unique ID) |
| Co-ownership | Not supported | Supported |
| NRI access | Limited | Dedicated NRI portal module |
| SMS alerts | None | Real-time at every transaction stage |
| Developer | TerraCIS (private, foreign-owned) | NIC Telangana (government) |
The Data Problem Did Not Go Away
Here is the part that matters most for property owners. Bhu Bharati is a better system. But when Dharani was shut down and Bhu Bharati took over, the data migrated as it was.
If your land was wrongly classified as prohibited in Dharani, it is still prohibited in Bhu Bharati. If your co-owner was missing, they are still missing. If your survey number was wrong, it is still wrong. New architecture does not fix old data.
The government knows this. That is why the Bhu Bharati Act includes a one-year correction window. Under Sections 4(5) and 4(6), any person affected by an incorrect entry can apply for rectification within one year of the Act’s commencement.
The Act commenced on 14 April 2025. The deadline is 13 April 2026.
After that date, uncorrected entries become final for the next survey cycle. Changing them after that will mean going through a Land Tribunal or courts, not an administrative correction form. Our step-by-step correction guide walks through exactly what to check and how to file.
First-Year Numbers
The portal’s first nine months (April 2025 to January 2026) offer some data points on whether the new system is working:
- 6.17 lakh registration slot bookings
- Property registrations worth Rs 12,443 crore
- Revenue collected: Rs 1,518 crore
- Portal hits: 4.33 crore
These are registration numbers, not correction numbers, so they do not tell us how many Dharani-era errors have been fixed. But they suggest the transactional side of the system is functioning.
What You Should Do
If you own property in Telangana, here is what matters right now.
1. Check your records on Bhu Bharati. Go to bhubharati.telangana.gov.in and use “Know Your Land Status.” Search by survey number, pattadar passbook number, or Aadhaar. Compare every field against your registered sale deed.
2. Pay attention to land classification. If your privately owned land shows as “prohibited” or “assigned,” that is an error you must correct before 13 April 2026. This was the single biggest category of Dharani-era mistakes.
3. Verify co-ownership. If you inherited property jointly with siblings, check that all names appear. Dharani could only show one owner. Bhu Bharati supports multiple, but the data may not have been updated automatically.
4. Get a fresh Encumbrance Certificate. Download it from IGRS Telangana for the full 30-year search period. Look for transactions you did not authorise.
5. File corrections now, not later. The administrative correction window under the Bhu Bharati Act closes on 13 April 2026. After that, you are looking at tribunals and courts. The difference is between filling a form and filing a case.
6. Check your Bhudhar number. Verify that your parcel has been assigned one. You will need it for all future transactions.
7. Keep dated copies of everything. Download or screenshot your portal records each time you check. If your records are ever altered without your knowledge, your own timestamped copies are the evidence. Assetly lets you store and organise property documents with timestamps, accessible from anywhere.
The Bigger Picture
Telangana’s Dharani experience is not unique. It is an extreme version of a challenge every Indian state faces when digitising land records. The data is only as good as what gets entered. If the paper records were messy (and in a state that went through bifurcation in 2014, many were), the digital records will be messy too.
What is worth noting is that Telangana at least recognised the problem, passed new legislation, and built a correction window. Many states have digitised their records and simply declared the job done. For the broader context on why India’s property system creates these risks, our anchor post covers the systemic issues.
Bhu Bharati is a genuine improvement. Better architecture, proper legislative backing, an appeals system that actually exists, and features like Bhudhar that Dharani never had. But the improvement only matters if property owners check their records and fix what is wrong while the window is still open.
The window closes on 13 April 2026. That is four days from now.
Related Reading
- Your Telangana Land Records May Have Errors: How to Check Before April 2026 — step-by-step guide to checking and correcting Dharani-era errors on Bhu Bharati
- Managing Property in Telangana: The Complete NRI Guide — full guide to documents, stamp duty, GHMC vs HMDA, and the Bhu Bharati portal
- Survey Number Missing in Telangana Master Plan? What It Usually Means — how to diagnose missing survey numbers, subdivisions, and planning-layer mismatches before filing the wrong correction
- Digital Land Record Tampering: How to Catch It — court cases where records were altered without owner knowledge, and how to monitor yours
- What Is an Encumbrance Certificate? — why you need a fresh EC and what it does (and does not) tell you
- Land Revenue Records: 7/12 Extract, RTC, Pahani Explained — how land records work across Indian states
Assetly is a property document management platform that helps Indian property owners organise, verify, and track their property documents digitally. Learn more.