Hyderabad: The state govt has constituted a special committee to probe irregularities in Dharani and Bhu Bharathi portals, identify those responsible and take preventive measures after taking stringent action against the guilty.Revenue secretary DS Lokesh Kumar on Wednesday said the state govt is taking a stern stance regarding the irregularities that have come to light concerning the Dharani and Bhu Bharathi portals.
He said revenue minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy conducted a review on this matter at the Secretariat on Wednesday. Lokesh Kumar explained that during the review of the ongoing forensic audit in Dharani portal, inherent security flaws were identified in its system architecture; and that unscrupulous elements exploited these vulnerabilities to make unauthorised entries through specific modules.Furthermore, it was noted that the Bhu Bharathi portal—developed by the National Informatics Centre—could be susceptible to similar flaws, as it follows the same technology architecture as Dharani. The govt suspects the involvement of the very individuals who originally designed the modules for the Dharani portal. Against this backdrop, it was announced that a special committee wil probe, identify those responsible, initiate strict action against those involved in irregularities, and recommend measures to prevent the recurrence of such incidents in the future, Lokesh said.The members of this committee are Mikkilineni Manu Chowdary, IAS (collector, Medchal-Malkajgiri); Prateek Jain, IAS (collector, Sangareddy); Anudeep Durishetty, IAS (joint secretary, IT & Communications department); Harsha Vardhan, IPS (Telangana Cyber Security Bureau); Apoorv Chauhan, IAS (project director, CMRO); Manda Makarand, IAS (project officer, ITDA, Utnoor); A Sampath (DSP, Telangana CIB, cyber crimes); M Subhashini (DIG, registration & stamps department); and A Srinivasa Subbarao (senior director – IT, NIC).It was stated that, following minister Ponguleti’s directives, the National Informatics Centre has been asked to develop a completely new system architecture that adheres to the highest security standards. Lokesh Kumar mentioned that the committee would submit its report to the govt within 15 days and that further action would be taken based on that report.He emphasised that the govt would not compromise under any circumstances regarding the security, integrity, and transparency of land records.
