Hyderabad: Palle Venkataiah, 65, a landless Dalit from the Madiga community, is one of six such families in Salaarnagar, a quiet hamlet in Gandeed mandal on the border of Mahabubnagar and Vikarabad districts. But Venkataiah wasn’t born landless.
The small piece of land his ancestors passed down to his father was fraudulently registered in the name of a powerful man from their own community when Venkataiah was a child. Today, he shows no interest in the Dharani portal or the newly launched Bhu Bharati land survey scheme, as he believes there’s no chance of reclaiming what was lost.
“They will ask me to show some documents. We never had any, though we were tilling the land for generations,” Venkataiah said, when asked why he hadn’t filed a petition during the Bhu Bharati grievance redressal programme currently underway in his village.
Pilot village in Bhu Bharati survey
Salaarnagar is among five villages chosen for a pilot survey under the Bhu Bharati initiative, part of a larger effort announced by revenue minister Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy on May 22 to survey 413 unmapped (‘naksha-less’) villages across Telangana.
An agency has been commissioned to survey agricultural land, roads, water bodies, canals, and grama kantham (land owned by the village panchayat), among other revenue-related aspects.
Surveyors have been conducting physical and drone surveys over the past few days, using a village map dating back to the 1950s. Survey engineer Vasu told Siasat.com that they are currently mapping the entire village, and that verification will follow.
Assistant manager Ramana said a few objections had been raised by villagers regarding the actual size of the land versus their claims, in particular, survey numbers. “The correct figures will be recorded and reported to the revenue officials,” he added.
Though home to just around 100 families, Salaarnagar is far from free of the complications created by the Dharani portal.
Dharani confusion and unresolved titles
Jabbani Srisailam, 52, and his two brothers inherited 4 acres and 18 guntas after their father’s death four years ago. However, following the launch of Dharani, they were shocked to find their cousin Bhagyamma listed as the owner of 20 guntas of their land.
“She has no objection to giving up that land which is not hers. After Dharani came, officials surveyed the land, but till now we have not been given the passbooks,” said Srisailam.
Salaarnagar may be a tiny village, but it mirrors a larger problem seen across Telangana – ownership disputes not caused by external encroachment or long-standing conflicts, but by technical errors and systemic issues within Dharani. These could have been resolved long ago, said villagers, had the system functioned better.
Displacement by digital record: Kusumasamudram case
Narsappa, a retired teacher from Salaarnagar, recounted a similar case from Kusumasamudram village in Kulkacharla mandal, Vikarabad district. He said that 47 acres of land, once abandoned by Reddy landlords fearing Naxals, had been tilled for decades by marginalised communities, backwards classes, Dalits and Adivasis.
However, following Dharani’s introduction, the land was recorded under the names of the former landlords. Gayathri, a former sarpanch from the landlord’s family, received pattadar passbooks for the land.
“She asked those who have been tilling those lands for decades to pay her Rs 2 to 4 lakh to get them registered in their names. The farmers refused, saying it was unjust to pay for land they had worked on for so long,” Narsappa explained.
According to him, she later sold 40 acres for Rs 4 lakh per acre to a buyer from Hyderabad “with money and muscle power.”
Preliminary findings and historic legacy
The survey team in Salaarnagar has so far found 422 acres of land, though that number may shrink once roads and other exclusions are factored in.
The village is also historically significant. Nestled amid hillocks, Salaarnagar boasts scenic beauty and is home to the Salaarnagar Project — an irrigation tank fed by monsoon runoff. Evidence suggests that the Salar Jung family, who served as prime ministers under the Nizams, once used the village as a holiday retreat.
A mosque, believed to have been built by the Salar Jungs, still stands at the centre of the village alongside a dargah.
“There were compartments of tanks built by the Salar Jung for his horses to drink water from. There were also mosques and other historic structures, which I saw as a child,” said Venkataiah.
Over time, most of these structures fell into ruin and were demolished, except for the mosque and the dargah. Today, the village is home to only two Muslim families, one of whom serves in the Hyderabad police, while two others work as registered medical practitioners.
A fading irrigation lifeline
The Salaarnagar Project, constructed during the tenure of Jalagam Vengala Rao, the fifth chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh in the 1970s, has an ayacut of 2,600 acres. It irrigates several villages in Gandeed and Kulkacharla mandals through a network of canals.
But mismanagement and political interference have reduced the project’s potential. Venkataiah notes that during monsoons, the outflow from the weir is a spectacular sight. His account rings true, a check dam built near the weir was recently washed away due to heavy inflows.
Without urgent repairs, villagers fear that the project may never realise its full capacity.
