Charu Sinha To Lead SET Probe On Dharani Portal
The probe will examine procedural lapses in the tender process undertaken by Telangana Technology Services for the Dharani portal
Hyderabad: Senior IPS officer Charu Sinha will head the Special Enquiry Team (SET) constituted by the state government to probe alleged irregularities in the Dharani land records portal during the previous BRS regime.
The government is expected to issue formal orders appointing the chairperson and members, official sources said.
The SET will investigate alleged irregularities in registrations, mutations, changes in land records, land classifications, beneficiary details, official approvals and digital logs.
Apart from Charu Sinha, the criminal investigation department ADGP and ACB Director-General, the SET members include superintendents of police Sindhu Sharma (counter intelligence), and Harshavardhan (cyber security)
It will also include the IAS officers Anudeep Durishetty, joint secretary, IT; Apurva Chauhan, project director, CMRVO, land administration; and Manda Makarand, project officer, ITDA, Utnoor. A technical expert from the National Informatics Centre (NIC) will be part of the team.
The probe will examine procedural lapses in the tender process undertaken by Telangana Technology Services for the Dharani portal, which was launched on October 29, 2020. It will scrutinise the bidding, evaluation, award of contract, design, development, operation and maintenance of the portal and examine whether the process complied with legal norms.
Allegations concerning the financial position of the selected agency, including claims of insolvency, and questions over investments in the company and their registration with the RBI and SEBI will also be examined.
The SET will investigate allegations of unauthorised transactions, security breaches affecting sensitive land ownership records, deficiencies in the payment gateway and failure to deposit transaction fees with the government as required. It will also examine transactions allegedly conducted outside the Dharani system, after official working hours, without proper auditing or without evidence of authorised log-ins.
The probe will cover transactions from the launch of Dharani until the Congress government assumed office in December 2023, with particular focus on assigned and government lands.
Allegations that assigned lands belonging to poor beneficiaries and vacant government lands were removed from the Section 22-A prohibited list and transferred to private individuals will be investigated. Rangareddy and Medchal districts, where officials reportedly found large-scale transfers of government land, will receive special attention.
In Medchal-Malkajgiri, allegations include real estate developers acquiring ceiling and assigned lands and large companies gaining control of 22-A properties through manipulation of records.
The SET will also examine alleged misuse of senior officials' digital keys to alter land records, issuance of fake pattadar passbooks and government orders, bogus title certificates and illegal de-notification of government lands before their inclusion in digital records.
The Congress government had earlier shifted Dharani's operations from a private agency to NIC and renamed it Bhu Bharati, besides obtaining preliminary inputs through forensic and expert committees.
The SET has been authorised to engage forensic and technical agencies and domain experts, while government departments have been directed to provide necessary assistance. It will submit interim reports and recommend measures to strengthen portal security. Based on its findings, the SET is expected to recommend criminal cases and legal action against officials, private individuals and others found responsible for the alleged irregularities.