Lands illegally allotted to firms will be taken back: Ponguleti

Says previous govt kept status of Dharani applications in the dark

- B Karthik @ Hyderabad

REVENUE Minister Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy on Wednesday said that the Congress government was working on streamlining Dharani, the integrated land records management system, fulfilling the promise of "throwing the portal into the Bay of Bengal".

The minister said: "We will introduce around 13 columns in land records with references to history of ownership as against a single column that is in the existing system."

In an exclusive chat with TNIE on the occasion of completion of one year in office, Srinivas Reddy said, "It has been a very satisfying year. We have effectively addressed the most pressing issues of the people, who in turn offered love and affection," he said, adding that already qualitative changes had been brought in Dharani portal.

"We cleared 5.5 lakh pending applications. Complete transfer of Dharani to NIC was effected on December 1," he said.